Tim Youd

100 Novels project / no. 49

Patricia Highsmith: Those Who Walk Away

Casa Artom: Venice, Italy

May 11-19, 2017

The artist will perform a single-page re-typing of Highsmith’s 1967 novel on the landing of Casa Artom, Wake Forest University’s home in Venice, Italy. The Action will be viewable only from the Grand Canal. Time Youd is represented by Cristin Tierney Gallery (NYC).

Tim Youd’s work is partly performance; he re-types 20th century novels on the typewriters the authors originally used and in settings that are important in the books or for the authors. He does this continuously on two layered pages, even as they become dense with ink and shredded. He then exhibits these echoed sheets of text side by side, alluding to the facing pages of the codex form, but also to paintings, like Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror. In Venice he will be working on the Patricia Highsmith novel, Those Who Walk Away. As Tim notes:

“Patricia Highsmith and Peggy Guggenheim knew each other. Highsmith was a guest for cocktails at Guggenheim’s Venice home along with Somerset Maugham. There is also record of them meeting at Harry’s Bar for a drink. And on another occasion, Guggenheim evidently turned down Highsmith’s invitation for a drink, again at Harry’s. As a result of the snub, Highsmith used Guggenheim’s first name for the name of the young wife whose suicide sets into motion the plot of Highsmith’s Venice novel, Those Who Walk Away”