The Big Hammer

A winery sculpture garden is a good destination for a displaced object and an increasingly common one. Wineries have land, an interest in giving visitors a reason to linger, and an audience predisposed to wander – which makes them natural adopters of large sculpture that has lost its original home. The Big Church Block Bottle at Wirra Wirra in McLaren Vale followed the same path from a festival commission to a winery paddock, though it came off show in 2016.

A hammer is a good form and a rare one. Tools are well represented in this catalogue – axes, chainsaws, spanners, pitchforks, a pencil, a coat hanger – but almost all of them mark a business selling that trade. A hammer in a sculpture garden has no commercial function at all, which makes it an artwork about a tool rather than an advertisement for one.

Mudgee's wine region has grown substantially over recent decades and now supports a serious cellar-door economy, with Rosby among the venues combining wine with art.

The documentation is missing the person responsible, the height or the installation date.