In the Italian Commedia dell’Arte, the Harlequin (or Arlecchino) was a wild and rogue servant—a fool who lacked money and food, and whose comic and cowardly antics interrupted and frequently unraveled the plot. Originally wearing a peasant’s shirt and long trousers, the Harlequin evolved into a highly recognizable figure with a tight-fitting outfit decorated with triangles and diamonds. This geometric “harlequin” pattern both designates an individual—a figure composed of a repertoire of familiar gestures—and a graphic scheme that suggests an infinitely expandable décor.
Skaer suspends various materials — copper, tin, resin, celluloid, bronze, brass, mahogany, a coin collection—within or underneath harlequin-like surfaces. Solid copper ingots are sliced diagonally to form a series of triangles, while salvaged mahogany is carved and polished into emerald-cut forms with triangular facets; old coins and small brass miniatures of Brancusi’s Newborn are cast in tin prisms, and piles of 35mm film frames are submerged in resin. As ostensive definitions of “Harlequin,” these sculptures are like figures that act, interrupt, deflect, and solicit. Each has the pretense of a narrative: the mahogany, for example, is over a century old; it was salvaged from a riverbed in Belize where it had sunk while in transit to the UK.
New York City, NY; NYC