by Ilka Scobie

Photos by Luigi Cazzaniga and Tom Burckhardt

Ilka Scobie: What have you been up to?

Red Grooms: I've been working for the past three years on a full scale carousel, the "Tennessee Foxtrot Carousel", for Nashville. We're scheduled to have that put into a pavilion in August. It will be downtown in Cumberland River Riverfront Park. It's a 44-foot diameter carousel with 35 individual unique figures that represent historical and living people from Nashville

Grooms: There won't be horses that you ride on, but there's a background central decorative column of a steeplechase held every year, called the Iroquois Street Steeplechase. We will also have fourteen sculpted horseheads that will represent famous horses from Middle Tennessee. This car is called the "Tennessee Foxtrot Car".

I've been working with a company in Brooklyn called Fabricon. And Marvin Silvor, the director has been great to work with. Right now they're setting the machine up and its filling the entire factory space. My assistant Tom Burckhardt has been terrific. He's been doing all the carving directly in styrofoam blocks. I did a design and then built an inch to a foot model. We raised the funds, through our own fundraisers in Nashville, privately and corporately

Grooms: It's my hometown. My mother, Wilhelmina Grooms and my brothers, Roger and Spencer are living there and have their families there.

Will the Carousel stay forever?

Grooms: The City Council gave us a forty year lease on the public property. It's a parking lot, but we'll take some portion of it to put up the carousel pavilion.

Grooms: I don't think I've got the abilities, although I did a cover for Parnassus magazine last year using my wife Lysiane's computer.

Which computer did you use?

Grooms: Micron. Lysiane is much more computer literate than I. In fact she's becoming a whiz. She helped me alot with the cover. We got the Micron because our accountant told us it would be great for accounting and inventory. But boy, right away it is fun to play around with the Paintbox program.

So you envision working more with computers.

Grooms: Maybe so. I don't know. I did this project for my last show at Marlboro Gallery in '95. I had always done these 3D things that you could walk through. They were always done off the seat of my pants without blueprints or course. But I always dreamed of having very concrete engineering plans, something like that. When we did "The Bus" I had several assistants who were very computer-oriented, especially one, Tzufen Liao. Tzufen and the others made this tremendous technical book that was so far advanced over anything I ever had before. I think if you showed it to anyone now they'd be frightened to death because it looks so complicated. But it was fun to get so factually correct.

If it wasn't for Lysiane, I don't think I'd ever have bought a computer. But I'd like to able to use computers more for art. For spatial things. When it comes to working in deep space I could use all the help Ican get.

Grooms: When you were last here I had three: Kyle wilton, Bill Wendel and Tzufen Liao. Then Tom Burkhardt rejoined my studio. But after my '95 show I had to downsize and cut back to just Tom. Anu Schwartz has also been working here for a year and helping me in all aspects of the Carousel. I've been upstairs painting Carousel figures for two years while Tom was down in the basement carving the figures out of styrofoam.

Is Tom a sculptor?

Grooms: Actually, he is a really good sculptor but in his own work he concentrates on painting, and he's brilliant. He just had a show at Esso Gallery over on Christie Street. I'll show you the catalogue.

Did you do a lot of that?

Grooms: No, not enough.

I remember people used to say when I was in my early twenties, you're supposed to be like a humble student and take your time and slowly mature into some greatness. That's not true at all, you better just go for it at any moment, full out, I think. Go for it completely ... don't wait around for anything.