12 7
pre-opening crunch
our conversation. so this was a completely crazy process, but i’m still fond of the outcome, and that activity was definitely important for getting things rolling toward the inventory books p.f.1 paperback. sarah carlisle: there was just so much going on. there was a periscope that one of the volunteers had made at his father’s sheet-metal shop. that install was pretty last minute; final touches were happening on the morning of the opening. Anna kenoff: the flag! dan climbed up on a pallet on the forklift—got hoisted up with the harness—to plant the flag on top of the tatlin tower. And we had the graffiti artist, diva, spraying one of the extra tubes to make a big graffiti bench. up until the last minute, we were filling the holes around the columns with concrete to support them.
elodie blanchard: the engineer was so stressed out. he was like, “can i put a piece of metal here? this is going to fall.” i mean, these tubes full of dirt are up there in the air. patrick hopple: the project is sloped in such a way that it could actually catch wind from both ends, like a sail, and
128
P.S.1 becomes P.F.1
it would want to move. There was some back and forth about solutions. I had to run out there, basically at 10 a.m. before the opening. I was in a nice suit; it was 95 degrees and I was up on the forklift, taking some pictures, doing some measurements, making calculations, and Dan was like, “That’s what I’m talking about—engineers doing engineering work!”
Dan Wood: I remember one of the forklifts got stuck in the small courtyard and we had to push it out of the gravel. Then, I turned around, and the site was spotless. People had left to change for the opening, the caterers were setting up, and the farm was this really brilliant cacophony of greens in the air. The sun was catching the silver plumbing tape and the structure looked massive and solid, with an incredible variety of colors and environments underneath. I was like, where did this come from?