Finding versions of men and women in love is my theme for this year’s Armory week shows. Let’s dismiss the piles of melting or collapsing sculpture and the aisles of works pushing forward the usual body parts and agendas. What did you like? Many know that in D. H. Lawrence’s classic novel Women in Love, the working-class sisters Ursula and Gundrun, live in England’s industrial midlands before World War I. They search for love with Rupert and Gerald respectively; this quartet endures severe psycho-sexual dilemmas (seen, too, in Ken Russell’s Women in Love 1969 film). Have things improved today? [...]
Bright Lights, Big City follows an unnamed 24-year-old Manhattan fact-checker who unravels after his wife leaves him. Artist Tim Youd, using the same style typewriter as Jay McInerney’s original Smith-Carona classic 12, greeted the author as he was re-typing the novel at Cristin Tierney’s Gallery in Manhattan. Nearby guests drank champagne, but Youd will be typing until September 13; he’ll switch to an IBM Selectric II at the end as did the author for his final draft. Youd has 1600 followers on Instagram; collectors buy his typed pages as art. Youd’s manual typewriter collection at home in California may be art, too. As his typed art takes him all over the world, Youd seems happy enough yet he often types books by men who are not.
Tim Youd re-types Bright Lights, Big City as part of Fifteen, a group exhibition currently on view at Cristin Tierney Gallery’s new Tribeca location through October 4.
