If we could make one more call to those who’ve gone: “Ocean Calling” by the San Francisco shore leaves our longing to the Pacific
Easing longing with the lift of a receiver
Summary
- San Francisco artists Jamae Tasker and Sarah McCarthy Grimm created "Ocean Calling" together.
- The installation was inspired by Japan’s “telephone of the wind,” allowing people to speak to loved ones they’ve lost through an unconnected phone line.
- The work grows out of the two artists’ own experiences with the death and disappearance of close family members, and their hope is to make grief visible and allow it to connect people.
- It’s located at San Francisco’s Sunset Dunes Park, where Ortega Street meets Ocean Beach.
If there were a phone that let you call someone you can no longer reach, what would you want to say? On the Pacific-facing shore at Sunset Dunes Park in San Francisco, an art installation called “Ocean Calling” stands quietly. The phone isn’t connected to any line, and no one will actually answer it, yet it offers a place for people to voice their longing, grief, and all the words left unsaid.
A phone that isn’t connected, yet carries countless feelings of longing
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“Ocean Calling” was created by San Francisco artists Jamae Tasker and Sarah McCarthy Grimm. The work was inspired by Japanese artist Itaru Sasaki’s “Telephone of the Wind,” installed in 2010: a rotary phone placed in a space facing the Pacific, inviting visitors to pick up the receiver and speak to loved ones they have lost.
The piece also stems from the two artists’ own experiences of loss. Jamae Tasker’s younger brother died in June 2023, while Sarah McCarthy Grimm’s sister went missing that September. Through “Ocean Calling,” they hope grief can become more than an emotion people bear alone: something that can be seen, spoken aloud, and even create connections between people.
From personal loss to the loss of nature
Images from ig / @sarahgrimmstudio @mamaladysmix
The installation carries more than longing for people. Its cutout butterfly motif symbolizes the extinct Xerces blue butterfly, extending personal grief to the ecological loss we all face. The surrounding planter boxes are planted with native flowering plants from San Francisco’s coast to attract pollinators. While commemorating lives that have passed, they also allow new life to continue on this shore. As the sun moves, butterfly shadows fall across different corners of the installation, making light and shadow part of the work as well.
Even after leaving the phone booth, the call hasn’t truly ended
Images from ig / @sarahgrimmstudio @mamaladysmix
The two artists later created a website for “Ocean Calling,” inviting people who have used the phone to share their stories. Some share whom they miss, why they made the call, and the words they have kept in their hearts. Others choose to say nothing at all, simply holding the receiver and sitting quietly for a while.
As the artists put it, the power of “Ocean Calling” doesn’t end when you leave the phone booth. Like the connection with someone you’ve lost, it doesn’t necessarily disappear with separation. We may never truly be able to call that person again, but at least on San Francisco’s shore, there is still a place willing to let the Pacific listen to all the words left unsaid.
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