rubble marble runs
We took a field trip to the Albany Bulb today to visit the Marble Run. If you’ve never been, the Albany Bulb is a former landfill on San Francisco Bay that artists have transformed into an unofficial sculpture garden. All the art is made from rubble and found objects, and one of the mysterious installations that has appeared is the Marble Run. It’s immense, and made up of concrete, cracked bits of ceramics, stone and found objects. There are many, many marble paths running through it, but they all converge at the same end point. As the marbles pass through the structure, they vanish and reappear and make all sorts of strange noises as they bump into hidden bells and drums and what might be a xylophone. The marble run was made by an anonymous artist, and it looks almost like a strange rock formation that was carved by the elements, apart from the tools and materials and hand-written signs that show someone has been there working on this amazing art installation.
After spending some time with the Marble Run, we were inspired to try making our own rubble marble run. We managed to build one using a chunk of concrete, and old log, bits of scrap metal, a tin can and a discarded xylophone, all of which we found on our hike today. It was really challenging, but also so very satisfying to turn junk into a working machine.
our rubble marble run, with the inspiring Albany Bulb Marble Run in the background
