Sept. 7, 2020 – Located outdoors at the entrance of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), a 48-foot-tall Hammering Man by Jonathan Borofsky, a sculptor, has been welcoming visitors since 1992. About four times per minute during the day, he hammers away. But once a year on Labor Day, he takes the day off.

Jonathan created his first Hammering Man in 1979 as a small wooden sculpture at a New York City art gallery. As the kinetic sculpture grew in stature and moved from inside to outside installations, steel and aluminum replaced wood. Even though the tall sculpture is a complex mix of engineering and art, it is an example of minimalism, a simple, powerful art form that belies a more complex conceptual foundation but one that can still be left to the visitor to interpret.

According to information on his website, he wanted to install Hammering Man sculptures around the world that would all be hammering at the same time to show how people are connected by work.

In addition to Seattle, outdoor Hammering Man sculptures can be found in the United States in Los Angeles and Dallas. Worldwide installations are in Seoul, South Korea; Basel, Switzerland and Frankfurt, Germany. The Frankfurt installation is 68 feet tall.

On Jonathan’s website, he speaks about his inspiration for his creation. He says: “We all use our minds and our hands to create our world. I like to say that between the mind and the hand, there is the heart.”

History of Labor Day
Labor Day has been celebrated in the United States for a very long time. According to information fro the U.S. Department of Labor, municipal ordinances passed in 1885 and 1886 were the first observances by a government entity. A movement then developed to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887.

During 1887, four more states – Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York – created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade, Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed. By 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday. On June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September of each year a national holiday.

Think of those who must work on Labor Day
The Seattle installation is just steps from a busy street corner. Seattle residents causally walk by the sculpture without looking up but tourists can be spotted in a nanosecond standing in awe at the base of the enormous sculpture with eyes to the sky. The silent swing of the hammer powerfully reinforces work as a connection between mind and hand with the heart in between. Today on Labor Day, remember those who must report to work to keep hospitals operating and cities safe, jobs that require a lot of heart.