Named Art Projects and Series
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Sarchiapone, Cosmos Andrew, 1931-2011
setName: label: See more items in
content: Cosmos Andrew Sarchiapone papers
label: See more items in
content: Cosmos Andrew Sarchiapone papers / Series 7: Artwork
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 5 Linear Feet (Box 27-29, 31, 47-48, OV 81-91)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1960s-2000s
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.sarccosm, Series 7.1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Named art projects and art series date from 1960s-2000s and consist primarily of Cosmos's conceptual art projects, often executed in the form of series that spanned decades.  Most incorporated a wide variety of formats, such as photographs, photograph fragments, photocopies, writings, drawings, and sound and video recordings. 

Documentation is found for his Reciprocol project that incorporated his photojournalist work.  For this project Cosmos photographed figures—including John Cage, Meyer Schapiro, Robert Scull, and others—and then asked each of them to photograph him. There are several folders of Cosmos's work focusing on photographer Diane Arbus-two series composed of fragments of Arbus's discarded photographs transformed via mounting and sequencing onto blank pages.

Many of the art projects are represented by photographic documentation of Cosmos's conceptual performances, such as in Sheet Music, where he is seen tearing a white sheet outside Bloomingdale's during the 'white sale.'  Other similar projects documented here include Camerakaze, Saved a Life, and Photo Arrest. 

Cosmos's opera project, Vox Humana #3, about three heroines of history—Antigone, Joan of Arc, Patty Hearst— synthesizes a variety of media, including musical composition, stage direction, and video (Patty Hearst in Chains), into a four hour performance that was staged at La Mama in 1976 and The Kitchen in 1977.

Cosmos self-identified his Lecture Series as an art performance on his resume. Thus, the files are arranged here.   
Cosmos used photocopy extensively in his art, experimenting with tonality, collage, and the degeneration of images from repeated copying. Therefore, many of the files for the art projects and art series contain photocopies; some with descriptive labeling and annotations.  For a few art projects, the photocopies are the sole source of documentation found within his papers.