- Title: USA: YOKO ONO ART RETROSPECTIVE OPENS IN NEW YORK.
- Date: 23rd October 2000
- Summary: EXCERPTS FROM FILM 'BOTTOM'
- Embargoed: 7th November 2000 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA80CZ2FWPB85UA3H5EMEW0QD1Z
- Story Text: A retrospective of the art of Yoko Ono is now on display in New York. The art work of Ono has always lived in the shadow of her late husband John Lennon, but with this show Ono hopes to secure her own place in art history.
A solo retrospective of the artwork of Yoko Ono is now on display at the Japan Society in New York.
The show is entitled 'YES' and it showcases a life's work by Ono dating back to the early 1960's.
The title piece of the exhibit is an installation entitled 'yes'. Viewers are asked to climb the white stepladder, grab a small magnifying glass, and examine a very small typewritten word 'yes' on the ceiling above them.
The affirmation of the word 'yes' is the reward for the viewers climb The curator of the exhibit, Alexandra Munroe, says a positive outlook runs throughout the show.
"Yoko's work is aimed at transformation. At inviting you to think positive. To imagine, to dream, to think Yes," Munroe says.
Many of the works in the show are interactive including the work 'water piece.' The water motif appears in many of the songs and texts by Ono, and in this piece viewers are encouraged to drip water on a sponge.
Ono began her art career as a member of the the avant-garde movement called Fluxus that developed in Manhattan in the late 1950's and early 1960's.
Ono was one of the pioneers of the Conceptualist mode of art-making, incorporating works and written instructions. One of her early champions was her late husband John Lennon who felt her work was always underrated.
"John Lennon once said of Yoko Ono, that she is the World's most famous unknown artist. Everybody knows her name but nobody knows what she does." said Munroe.
In the mid 1960's and early 1970's Yoko turned her attention to performance art, producing films like 'Freedom' in which audience members are asked to come on stage and cut clothing off Ono until she is left all but naked. The humorous and erotic 1966 film 'bottoms' was banned by the British Board of Film Censors when it was first shown in England, a decision that Ono protested at the time.
At the opening night party for her show, the elusive Ono said simply that she hopes the exhibit has a positive effect on it's viewers,
"Well I hope that it will give some energy and inspiration to other people."
The 'YES' show will on display in New York until January 14, 2001, and then it will move on to other cities in the US and Canada.
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