Tom Hanks has a thing for typewriters. And ever since Sag Harbor artist and resident Eric Fischl saw Hanks’ film California Typewriter — a documentary that explores and celebrates the mythology attached to the machine — he started to develop a thing for them, too.
This Friday, Jan. 11 at 6:30 p.m., The Church (48 Madison St., 631-919-5342) in Sag Harbor (the nonprofit arts organization Fischl founded along with his wife and fellow artist April Gornik) will host the opening reception for “Some of Tom’s Typewriters,” an exhibition designed by former Barneys New York creative director and Shelter Island resident Simon Doonan featuring about 35 typewriters Hanks has hand selected from his storied personal collection.
Between 30 and 35 typewriters will be on display in the exhibition. (Photo courtesy of The Church, Sag Harbor. Photo by Joseph Jagos ©)
“It all started with Eric Fischl,” says Sheri Pasquarella of the birth of the exhibition. “He saw this film and had in the back of his mind the fact that once a year we do a show dedicated to material culture, so he started thinking about what object’s had already been done. We’ve done the bicycle, we’ve done the guitar.” Inspired by both the film and Hanks’ palpable interest in typewriters, Fischl was curious to see if the beloved actor was interested in collaborating with The Church and sharing a portion of the beloved actor’s vast collection (which contains more than 300 typewriters) with the public.
So, according to Pasquarella, through a mutual friend, he reached out to Hanks directly who in turn “very enthusiastically agreed to collaborate with us,” she says. “Hanks has selected all of the works. He has an impressive knowledge of typewriters as somebody who’s been collection them for about four decades. He really is a true connoisseur, and he has shared with us the stories of how it all got started.”
The Church brought in Doonan to install the exhibit not only for his expertise on display and design but to, according to a press release from the Sag Harbor locale, spotlight the charm, engineering majesty and social and historical aspects the artifacts evoke. Funny enough, Doonan discovered he had his own deep connection to typewriters as both of his parents had been typists, notes Pasquarella. “That really came full circle,” she says.
Types of typewriters slated to be on view run the gamut from a mod-inspired, brightly designed Olivetti Valentine popular during the 1960s to the utilitarian Swintec of the 1980s to the lightweight Corona No. 4 from the 1930s. In addition to Hanks’ collection, and in a slight nod to nostalgia, The Church has also borrowed two typewriters from the East Hampton Star that people can actually type on. The celebrating of an old way of doing things is “definitely a part of the think here,” Pasquarella says. “If the people are a little older, they can remember what it was like to type on a typewriter. And if they’re younger they can do it for the first time and have that feeling of what it feels like, which is really fun.”
While “Some of Tom’s Typewriters” will be on display through March 10, there’s a second component to the show that’s also opening on Friday, “Some Odes,” beginning at 6 p.m. Described by Pasquarella as an intimate dialogue between painter Sam Messer and author Paul Auster with additional works by Eleanor Gaver, Denis Johnson and Sharon Olds, this small-scall exhibition focuses on the convergence of ideas between artists and media. “We were looking for a companion show,” Pasquarella says, “because we have some walls just underneath the mezzanine that weren’t going to be used by the typewriter installation.” Fittingly, Fischl recalled the book The Story of My Typewriter, a collaborative effort written by Auster and featuring pictures painted by Messer that is about the author’s old Olympia typewriter, and Pasquarella was able to coordinate a studio visit with the painter.
“He had made more than 300 paintings of typewriters, and I was really curious about how that fit into his practice. And as it turned out, the typewriter became a sort of emblem of this tremendous creative community that he’s a part of, that largely features writers.” Messer did a portrait of Auster and his typewriter which sparked the idea to do a book together. The Church’s “Small Odes” explores not only the typewriter itself, but how the image has become a symbol for artists working in the community and how ideas flow between them.
Both exhibitions are free and open to the public.
