Almost completely devoid of imagery, works in the Jammers series are made from rattan poles, silk, sometimes also including everyday objects, as here with plastic glasses filled (repeatedly after evaporation) with water and connected to the poles with catenary strings. The series title is derived from windjammers, tall ships, and the elements variously reference sails, ropes, masts, spars, oars and water. Given Rauschenberg’s delight in puns and other wordplay, this work’s title may (but only may!) refer to water jousting, a form of jousting where two jousters, carrying a lance and protected only by a shield, stand on a platform on the stern of a boat. The aim of the sport is to send the opponent into the water whilst maintaining one’s own balance on the platform. Works from the series are the subject of a show running during 2025-26 at the Menil Collection in Houston. Other Jammers composed of poles and fabric as well as one with a glass water jug have been gifted from the foundation’s collection to the Guggenheim, High Museum, Birmingham Museum of Art and Huntsville Museum of Art, as can be seen in the “Gifts and Loans” section of the website.
