Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.10.2010, Blaðsíða 17

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Conceptual artist, performer, musician, experimen-
tal filmmaker, peace activist, businesswoman and
philanthropist,Yoko Ono is still overshadowed by
the role she is most known for: being the widow
of musician John Lennon and the accompanying
hard-to-shake-off clichés about ‘splitting up the
Beatles’.
Yoko’s continuous quest for love, peace and
above all HOPE is perhaps exactly what’s needed
in Iceland in these times of economical and politi-
cal turmoil. It hasn’t exactly been a time of positive
thinking. Fortunately, she is back in Iceland this
weekend to light up her ‘Imagine Peace Tower’ for
the fourth time.
Made in memory of Lennon, the work tower
has been lit upon his birth date, October 9, since it
was unveiled in 2007. This year Lennon would have
turned 70 years old, which means a big celebration
with events such as the long sold-out live perfor-
mance by The Plastic Ono Band on Saturday night.
We are glad to have her, so we called her up.
Instructions
“LET EVERYBODY IN THE CITY THINK OF THE
WORD "YES" AT THE SAME TIME FOR 30 SEC-
ONDS. DO IT OFTEN.”
--YOKO ONO--
Yoko Ono’s instructional pieces, published in a
book titled ‘Grapefruit’ in 1964, are simple and of-
ten Zen-like ‘event scores’ that replace the physi-
cal work of art. Yoko started to make a name for
herself in the early 1960s avant-garde art scene in
New York, performing and exhibiting with artists of
the Fluxus group. She explains: “We were all there
before” [prior to George Maciunas’ Fluxus mani-
festo in 1963], and some of their early events were
held at Yoko’s loft. Fluxus was an international net-
work of artists who celebrated experimentation,
anti-art sensibility and explored media ranging
from performance art, poetry, experimental music
and film. True to the Fluxus spirit Ono’s final in-
struction for ‘Grapefruit ‘was: “Burn this book after
you've read it.”
It could be argued that Yoko Ono has only in
recent years gained true recognition for her work,
with a retrospective spanning her 40-year career
exhibited in 2000, being awarded with a Life-
time Achievement Award from the Japan Society
of New York and the Golden Leon award at the
Venice Biennale in 2009. Her early works include
‘A Painting (Work) To Be Stepped On’ (1961), lit-
erally leaving a piece of canvas on the floor to
be stepped on, and the controversial ‘Cut Piece’,
which was first performed in Japan in 1964. The
artist sat kneeling on a stage, with a pair of scis-
sors in front of her. One at a time, the audience cut
off a bit of her clothes for them to keep, leaving the
artist naked by the end of the performance. But
Ono shares her art and perhaps herself in this way.
Audience participation is important
Audience participation has been an ongoing ele-
ment in her work, as she explains when asked: “It
is very important to me, because it makes people
closer to my work. And I don’t want to be put up
on a pedestal.” In her notorious ‘Ceiling Painting’
the viewers had to climb up a white ladder in the
centre of the room, from where a magnifying glass
hanging from the ceiling revealed the word "YES"
written in tiny letters. The work was exhibited at
London’s Indica Gallery in 1966, which John Len-
non supposedly crashed prior the opening and
took a big bite of an apple placed on a pedestal
the middle of the gallery (stood in this case as a
work of art, titled ‘Apple’).
The importance of being geothermal
The participatory element is particularly evident in
more recent projects such as the ‘Wish Tree’. First
set up in Japan in 1996 and continued in cites
around the globe, it collects people’s wishes and
refers to her Japanese background and traditions.
The work has a special connection to the ‘Imagine
Peace Tower’ as Yoko collected a number of those
wishes and buried them in capsules around the
tower.
Iceland was chosen as a location for the Imagine
Peace Tower particularly because of its ability to
geothermally generate the electricity needed. Yoko
notes that Icelanders should be very careful in the
future when we touch on the subject of geother-
mal and hydroelectric energy, a current and highly
debated issue in Iceland. “Iceland is such a beauti-
ful country”, she continues.
Not necessarily having any other connection to
neither her nor John Lennon, its particular place-
ment is not the issue. It could have been placed
anywhere in the world. Yoko grew up moving be-
tween Japan and New York in her younger years.
This, she explains, shaped her when growing up
and therefore the aim to bring people of the world
together and blurring geographical boundaries
has meant something very special to her. Having
travelled around the globe she celebrates increas-
ing globalization: “It’s like a melting pot today,” she
says in an excited voice.

Things are always changing
When asked about the changes that have oc-
curred in Iceland since the Peace Tower’s unveil-
ing in 2007, a year that represents the end of an
era of wealth and perhaps innocence, and if it has
affected the way people view the work, she agrees.
She says that “of course it shapes the way we look
at things,” but then calmly, in an almost spiritual
manner, she goes on: “Things are always chang-
ing”. Her words are inspiring and full of hope.
It is by looking back at her career you really
start to appreciate her work. The Peace Tower has
taken some time to grow on me, personally. The
work was originally a conceptual text piece called
‘Light House’ (1965), noting “- a house construct-
ed of light from prisms, which exists in accordance
with the changes of the day.” It was Lennon’s idea
to make it a reality. One beautiful wish has come
true.
We do not need to look at the work as reminder
of the silly things we got up to in 2007, but rather
the symbol of hope it is meant to be. It might just
feed off something positive. Perhaps it seems like a
wishful thinking, but that is how the best of things
often start to take shape.
Yoko Ono ends our conversation in quite Japa-
nese fashion with the words: “Iceland, I love you,
and see you soon!”
YES!
A conversation with Yoko Ono
Text by Kristín Dagmar
Photo by Gúndi
The Peace Tower will be lit on October 9. Yoko Ono plays a concert with
her Plastic Ono Band the same night at Háskólabíó.