Blue-collar sculptor intersects labor and art in newest Mare Island piece
Artist Zulu Heru details his piece, “Farmer the Rigger”
By day, artist Zulu Heru occupies the operator’s cab of a crane, maneuvering heavy materials across industrial job sites.
By night, he’s transforming salvaged materials into towering works of public art. His newest piece, a 20-foot, 9,000-pound sculpture titled “Farmer the Rigger,” stands in the Mare Island Artyard, overlooking one of the oldest and most historic dry docks on the West Coast. According to Heru, the sculpture celebrates blue-collar trades, craftsmanship, and ancestry. “Farmer the Rigger is a self-portrait sculpture,” he says. “It talks about my journey.”
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Artist Zulu Heru created the 9,000-pound, 20-foot-tall, metal sculpture Farmer the Rigger, an Afrocentric mask that is a tribute to skilled Laborers and African ancestry. (Chris Riley/Times-Herald)