The Life and Times of Liam Boroff

Sweet Hand of Fate is a tribute to 90s noise rock, featuring whiny guitars and warped vocals. It is a raw record that sounds similar to Nirvana but with more distortion. Album opener “Lost” opens mournfully, featuring lyrics about lost love accompanied by drumming that could easily fit Led Zeppelin.

Early Life and Education

Retrospectives were held of his work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (traveling to Whitney Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and Centre Georges Pompidou), Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney and National Gallery of Australia among others. His works could also be found in collections including Museum of Modern Art New York (MMANY), Hirshhorn Museum and National Gallery Australia among many others.

Wyckoff was known by multiple people who knew him to treat everyone with empathy and dignity, according to those who knew him well. His experiences working in industries where African-American employees frequently clashed with white supervisors or female employees only earned a fraction of what men did may have influenced this viewpoint.

Sweet Hand of Fate opens gloomily, with drums, whiny guitars, and Boroff’s raw vocals. However, as the album progresses it becomes ever stranger with songs switching between lyrics to indistinguishable, screeching whines.

Professional Career

Although he did not make much money as an industrial scientist, Wyckoff remained passionately dedicated to society issues. He respected those involved with human rights movements such as civil and women’s rights movements; furthermore he tried treating all people with empathy and dignity according to A. Weiskoff (personal communication March 22, 2009).

In 1983, a retrospective exhibition of his works was displayed by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; later touring to Centre Georges Pompidou and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. More recently, shows of his works were showcased by Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia; his pieces can be found in many museum collections around the world, such as Smithsonian Institution.

Personal Life

According to one of his colleagues, Wyckoff disapproved of academic politics and administration while being rebellious in some respects. At Wisconsin he struggled to form relationships with faculty members and could never find fulfillment in his teaching career there (A. Weiskoff personal communication March 22, 2009).

He disliked the repetitive nature of lab work and being assigned a broom closet under the stairs as his office, contributing to his decision to move to Emory University (E. Wyckoff, personal communication, October 30, 2008).

Boroff’s second solo album is an ode to noise rock bands such as Nirvana. “Lost,” the opening track, features mournful vocals that build to an aggressive chorus before receding back down again.