Assagai was started shortly after leaving NYC and moving to SF. Looking for a studio, Zach chanced upon a drilling and foundation construction company at the Hunters Point Navy Yard with a pile of steel and a maverick owner apparently amused by the artist who allowed him the use of the construction yard and equipment on off hours. Working on available nights and weekends over a period of nearly two years, this work features a 50 foot “teeter-totter” and complex pipe to pipe connections at odd angles so difficult to construct that it led directly to the pursuit of CAD to design sculpture. This is one of very few of Coffin’s works that do not incorporate stone mostly due to the soft crumbly nature of the serpentine stone in the area.
