For this Labor Day, we look to the Hammering Man, standing tall in downtown Seattle, swinging his hammer four times a minute for the past 26 years.
Like a lot of us, he toils away every day — except on Labor Day.
Johnathan Borofsky's 48-foot-tall sculpture is owned by the City of Seattle. The City of Seattle owns thousands of art works, a couple hundred of which are permanent installations.
Hammering Man was built and installed in 1991 with support of the Seattle Art’s Commission’s 1 percent for Arts program. While it’s owned by the city, Hammering Man stands outside of the Seattle Art Museum on First Avenue and University Street and swings his hammer 364 days a year, all day except from 1 a.m. – 5 a.m.
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On the City of Seattle's website, Hammering Man is described as celebrating "the worker's contribution to society."
“He or she is the village craftsman, the South African coal miner, the computer operator, the farmer or the aerospace worker–the people who produce the commodities on which we depend.”
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Did you know Hammering Man has brothers? Borofsky’s goal is to have hammering men placed all over the world, working simultaneously. So far, there are five other similar sculptures in the U.S. in New York, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Dallas and Washington D.C. There are two taller hammering men in Seoul, Korea and Frankfurt, Germany.
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