April 23, 2008

Jack-Hammer

Gentle reader, this is Tammy.

I was excited to learn that SFMOMA was building a sculpture garden on its garage roof. I imagined it—an elaborate place where whiskey rivers would meet the charm and class of chocolate fountains, black light paintings, giant sculptures of tiny Hummel figurines, maybe a maze made out of hedges and a Minotaur!?

But, (sigh)—mass destruction is the prelude to constructing such a place. Elaborate scaffolding was established, walls knocked out, construction crews poured cement into kiddie pools, and life-sized Tonka Toy cranes set to the task of heaving port-o-potties to and from the garage roof. Then: enter the Jackhammer.

The Jackhammer greets me every day as I enter the workplace. At night I imagine its terrible drill, just above my head. I try tuning it out. But it is impossible.

So, why not have a little fun with it? Exhibitions Technical Manager Steve Dye and I went out and made some field recordings of The Jackhammer. And then I added a dash of metal.

Take a listen.



Jackhammer as musical instrument. Blasted Jack-Hammer.

Comments (7)

  • Suzanne! Dan Graham! You did it! I owe you a Gray’s Papaya hot dog from 1989. Thank you!

  • taylor, can you post a link somewhere? i’d love to hear those.

  • Odd coincidence — I work across Minna from the demo/construction project, and have been making my own (very lo-fi) field recordings. When it’s not ringing out at 90dB as you arrive at work, the Jackhammer is actually quite beautiful.

  • Andrew….does this look familiar?

  • Rooftop sculpture gardens are a good call. I have fond memories of being a li’l guy — 10 years old, maybe — on the roof of — could it have been the DIA center? MOMA? and there was a — was it Robert Irwin? It was a large –plexiglass? plastic? it was see-through, slightly tinted plasticy curved sheet — through which you could see the city. Like a giant, steel-framed prescription sunglass lens. I remember being unimpressed — maybe I was eleven — because the effect wasn’t that dramatic. It didn’t really warp the view of the city that dramatically. Just tweaked it a little. I was coming from a framework of — Transformers. Robots in disguise. I wanted things turned upside down. Do you think this could’ve been robert irwin?

    Here’s a good Ozzy minus jackhammer.

  • “and then I added a dash of metal.” Sounds like Ozzy meets Julia Childs. When life gives you jackhammers… you keep rockin in the free world Tammy.

See all responses (7)
Leave a comment

Please tell us what you think. We really love conversation, and we’re happy to entertain dissenting opinions. Just no name-calling, personal attacks, slurs, threats, spam, and the like, please. Those ones we reserve the right to remove.
Required

Sign Up

Join our newsletter for infrequent updates on new posts and Open Space events.
  • Required, will not be published

Dear Visitor,
We regret to inform you that Open Space is no longer active. It was retired at the end of 2021. We sincerely appreciate your support and engagement over the years.

For your reference, we encourage you to read past entries or search the site.

To stay informed about future ventures or updates, please follow us at
https:://sfmoma.org.

Thank you for being a part of our journey!