Skits 6‘ 8” x 6‘ 8” x 1” Fidelity Investments, Boston 2012
detail
Skits has sixty cast-clay tiles arranged in six columns. Each tile has six different surface planes glazed with alternating sections of typed and hand written text. All of the text comes from three different comedy skits that my late brother, John Redmond, wrote and performed in NYC in the mid 80’s. The three skits are “Science Marches On”, “Man-Scouts” and “Le Club Footlight”. You can only glimpse individual snippets of the stories, as his writing is used as texture and pattern throughout the entire wall piece. The script that you see in the piece is his handwriting, complete with any scratch outs and revisions. Years before my brother passed away in 1987, we often talked about our frustrations of pursuing unlikely careers in clay and comedy. He always said that I had the better end of it. Skit comedy writing is so topical that once it’s performed, its shelf life is virtually over. While clay, unless you drop it and break it, has the possibility of centuries of life. Working on Skits has been very special for me. Not only did I get to hang out with my brother’s writing again, but in a small way, got to give his work a bit of a longer shelf life.
2
