Hunched over a typewriter, brows knitted, Tim Youd has the look of a man urgently trying to finish his work without being interrupted.
Peer over his shoulder — as a number of people did Friday at EXPO Chicago at Navy Pier — and you could reasonably assume his was the work of a madman: The paper rolled into the typewriter was so ink-caked, so key-battered, that it was completely illegible. But neither assumption would be correct.
Youd is a Los Angeles-based artist. In a sea of static artwork, he was one of just a handful of performance artists at the expo, which wraps up a four-day run on Sunday. The event showcases nearly 170 galleries from across Chicago, the U.S. and the globe.
When visitors, drawn by the clacking, stopped by, Youd was delighted to lift his fingers from the keys to talk about his multi-year art project. He’s retyping—word for word—100 novels, each book on a single page, which explains why they are impossible to read. Paper debris— the bits the typewriter spits out—lies on Youd's desk, like a scattering of inky ash.
To date, he's re-typed 80 novels, he said. When he's finished—last week he was working on Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451"—he typically frames the finished "work."
