View allAll Photos Tagged yokoono
" IMAGINE PEACE
IMAGíNATE LA PAZ
yoko ono "
Billboard Location:
Thousand oaks NS 1.2mi. W/O Wetmore F/NW, San Antonio, Texas
" IMAGINE PEACE
IMAGíNATE LA PAZ
Billboard Locations:
1 / Highway 78 ES 0.2mi. S/O Loop 1604 F/NE
2 / Thousand oaks NS 1.2mi. W/O Wetmore F/NW
3 / Bandera ES 150ft. N/O Ligustrum F/SE
4 / Austin highway ES 520ft. N/O Vandiver F/NE
5 / Rigsby NS 75ft. W/O Irwin F/W
6 / US 90 SS 0.6mi. W/O Callaghan F/W
7 / Grissom SS 0.2mi. W/O Timber Path F/E
8 / Military SW NS 300ft. W/O new Laredo Highway F/W
9 / Babcock WS 250ft. S/O Springtime F/S "
YOKO ONO: IMAGINE PEACE Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace
September 26th - October 28th, 2007
UTSA Art Gallery / Department of Art and Art History
The University of Texas at San Antonio
" IMAGINE PEACE
IMAGíNATE LA PAZ
Billboard Locations:
1 / Highway 78 ES 0.2mi. S/O Loop 1604 F/NE
2 / Thousand oaks NS 1.2mi. W/O Wetmore F/NW
3 / Bandera ES 150ft. N/O Ligustrum F/SE
4 / Austin highway ES 520ft. N/O Vandiver F/NE
5 / Rigsby NS 75ft. W/O Irwin F/W
6 / US 90 SS 0.6mi. W/O Callaghan F/W
7 / Grissom SS 0.2mi. W/O Timber Path F/E
8 / Military SW NS 300ft. W/O new Laredo Highway F/W
9 / Babcock WS 250ft. S/O Springtime F/S "
YOKO ONO: IMAGINE PEACE Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace
September 26th - October 28th, 2007
UTSA Art Gallery / Department of Art and Art History
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Do It (TV), 1995-1996
Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist
Shere Hite (2:07), Dave Stewart (1:44), Gilbert & George
(2:12), Michelangelo Pistoletto (1:46), Steven Pippin (2:08),
Yoko Ono (1:01), Erwin Wurm (1:23), Leon Golub (1:09), Nancy
Spero (1:28), Lawrence Weiner (:59), Eileen Miles (2:25),
Rirkrit Tiravanija (:59), Jonas Mekas (2:16), Ilya Kabakov (1:29),
Michael Smith (2:57), Damien Hirst (1:35), Robert Jelinek (1:49).
Agency: Art and Advertising
September 19 – November 8, 2008
Kevin Concannon, PhD, and John Noga, curators
Sometimes puzzling, sometimes provocative, works in advertising media by artists ranging from Marcel Duchamp to Jeff Koons to 0100101110101101.ORG have both delighted and disturbed audiences that are sometimes left to wonder exactly what it is they’re seeing. Indeed, artists have used the media of advertising to communicate content that often defies viewers’ expectations and frequently challenges them. Agency: Art and Advertising is an exhibition that explores artists’ use of advertising media as sites for works of art (as opposed to the more conventional use of advertising for the promotion of work) as well as its subject. The exhibition, curated by Kevin Concannon, PhD, and John Noga, will focus on works of art in and about advertising media from the 1960s to the present.
Artists themselves, who were largely critical of commercial culture when this “ad art” phenomenon first flourished in the 1960s, are now often ambivalent about –or even embracing of –the commercialism they once critiqued. Others simply choose to use advertising media in order to extend their reach beyond conventional contemporary art audiences. Agency: Art and Advertising examines the history of art in advertising spaces –and art that addresses commodity culture through the appropriation of advertising –as it has evolved over the past 50 years.
Stop and Stare
In conjunction with the exhibition, AGENCY: Art and Advertising, shown inside
the McDonough Museum of Art there are nine captivating works that are on view
outside the Museum’s walls. Dotting the Youngstown metropolitan area are
billboards featuring gigantic images created by artists Geoffrey Hendricks,
Marilyn Minter, Yoko Ono and John Lennon, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. These
spectacular images line the sky, compelling the public to stop and stare.
Agency: Art and Advertising
Catalog is available in the museum office or through our gift shop.
Exhibition Sponsors
Anonymous
Frank and Pearl Gelbman Charitable Foundation
Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation
Lamar Advertising of Youngstown, Inc.
Toby Devan Lewis
Ohio Arts Council
Innis Maggiore
McDonough Museum of Art
Tuesday through Saturday, 11-4pm
Wednesday 11am-8pm
Free and open to the public.
call 330.941.1400
htttp://mcdonoughmuseum.ysu.edu
Exhibit B (Jacket worn by John Noga)
during "YOKO ONNO'S CUT PIECE (1964)" Performed by John Noa, August 29, 2007
Private collection of Mikihiko Hori
" YOKO ONO CUT PIECE
performed by john noga
Akron-Summit County Public Main Library Auditorium
Wednesday 29 August 2007 7pm "
" YOKO ONO'S CUT PIECE (1964)
Performed by John Noga, graduate assistant, The University of Akron
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Master of Arts Administration program
Introduction by Kevin Concannon, associate professor of art, UA
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 7 pm
Akron-Summit County Public Library
(The Akron-Summit County Public Library is the site of the performance, and is not a sponsor.)
Cut Piece
Yoko Ono's performance, Cut Piece (1964), first performed by the artist herself in
Kyoto, Japan, in 1964, will be performed this evening by graduate student and assistant
curator of the IMAGINE PEACE exhibition, John Noga. The exhibition Yoko Ono
IMAGINE PEACE, Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace, curated by Kevin
Concannon (with John Noga), is on display through September 7th at the Mary Schiller
Myers School of Art's Emily Davis Gallery in Folk Hall (150 E. Exchange St, Akron)
on the campus of The University of Akron.
While Cut Piece is now widely understood as a feminist performance piece, Ono's early
performances of the work were commonly understood quite differently. Ono performed
the piece a number of times between 1964 and 1966. At the time, she spoke of it as a test
of her commitment as an artist. She frequently told interviewers a story about the
Buddha in which he comes across a hungry lioness and her cubs. taking pity on her
plight, he hurls his body off a cliff above the lioness, scattering the pieces of his body to
offer nourishment to the animals. At the moment of his leap, he achieves enlightenment.
Ono also often discussed the piece as an attempt to move beyond the artist's ego. The
artist, she explained, often gave his audience what he thought they should have. She
wished instead for the audience to take what it wanted from the work. With Cut Piece,
she expressed this quite literally.
The performance score (instructions) calls for the performer to sit on the stage wearing
his or her best suit of clothing with a pair of scissors placed in front of him or her. it is
then announced that members of the audience may approach the stage one at a time to cut
a piece of clothing that they may take with them. The performance ends at the
performer's discretion. Witnessing the performance, it becomes clear that the cutters are
performers as well. The audience observes that each voluntary participation has their own
unique and distinct approach to the work.
in 2003, Ono performed the work personally for the last time. She did it, she says, for
peace, and against ageism, racism, and sexism.
Thank you for being a part of tonight's special performance of Yoko Ono's Cut Piece
The Mary Schiller Myers School of Art
The University of Akron "
YOKO ONO'S CUT PIECE (1964)
Performed by John Noga, graduate assistant, The University of Akron
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Master of Arts Administration program
Introduction by Kevin Concannon, associate professor of art, UA
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 7 pm
Akron-Summit County Public Library
(In Spanish at the bottom)
Yesterday Getafe, a working class populated city at the South of Madrid, wanted to pay homage to the victims of domestic violence and prepared several acts during the whole evening and night to people aware about this social problem and as a way of telling to the victims that they are not forgotten.
Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, a huge Cedar tree, was placed in the afternoon by a Lorry mounted crane in the main square of the city calling the attention of the old people there walking and chatting under a friendly winter sun.
As I put the tag with Yoko’s wish in the tree to take a photo, they came around and one of them asked me with an ironic smile “Are you selling this tree? Is the price written in the tag? I laughed for his humorous way of approaching me, and his funny way of asking without asking, that it was a pleasure for me telling them about the Wish Tree and the International Day for the elimination of violence against women.
They started to talk about women in Getafe killed by their husbands and asked to participate. Nothing was prepared yet, and the whole thing was supposed to start at 5 p.m., but I forgot all protocol and provided them some tags and pens still in the bags and boxes and they were the first ones to tie wishes to the tree.
That square is the main witness of the energy of the city and of all the movements of its people during the whole journey, because when old people returned to their houses about 3p.m. children started to flow from the surrounding streets. They were very interested about the whole thing.
Pens and tags seemed to fly through the table we had set for people to write their wishes. They asked their parents to help them to tie their wishes and encourage them to write their own. It was amazing seeing them running from the table to the tree again and again and again with that special and beautiful energy children have, calling their friends in the distance to come and write wishes.
At 5 p.m. people started to build a path of light leading to the Wish Tree and in the stages around the square started some circus, dance, theatre and music performances, all of them related to the issue of domestic violence.
The major of the city tied to the Wish Tree the message sent by Yoko Ono to erase domestic violence and the women of Getafe read a manifesto against domestic violence. The most moving moment of the whole evening was when a very young girl read a letter to her mother killed for her father last year in Getafe.
The path of light to the Wish Tree grew and grew and people placed candles at its feet as a symbol of the presence of the 53 women victims of domestic violence in Spain last year.
Jorge Artajo
Installation organiser
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message from Yoko Ono:
Hi, Jorge!
I see that you are working, as usual.
We are at the point where we can end all violence very soon, by the effort of people like you.
Thank you.
yoko
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have just placed the WISH TREE in Getafe (Madrid). People will start tying wishes to erase domestic violence at 5 p.m (Madrid time) / 11 a.m (New York time) and will end at 9 p.m.(Madrid time) / 3 a.m. (New York time).
You can follow the event in real time in Twitter twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles
We will upload photos of the people once they put their wishes in the tree.
The tree is a Cedrus (common name Cedar), an evergreen mystical tree with scented wood that I chose it because of its beauty and because I felt it as a shelter for victims of violence and a healing place for tormented souls.
Acabamos de colocar en Getafe el ÁRBOL DE LOS DESEOS contra la violencia de género,y hemos colgado el mensaje que envió Yoko Ono expresamente para esta ocasión:
Borremos la violencia doméstica en este planeta!
Ama, ten esperanza, sueña y borra
Amor,
Yoko 2011
El acto empezará a las 5 de la tarde y concluirá a la 9 de la noche. Puede seguirse casi en directo en Twitter twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles
Vamos a ir colgando fotos de los eventos minuto aminuto durante toda la jornada.
El árbol es un Cedro (Cedrus) un árbol de hoja peremne y madera olorosa considerado místico que puede llegara vivir hasta dos mil años y que escogí por su belleza y porque lo vi como un refugio para las víctimas de la violencia doméstica y un lugar donde las almas atormentadas pueden llegar a encontrar la paz.
Animaos a venir.
" YOKO ONO CUT PIECE
performed by john noga
Akron-Summit County Public Main Library Auditorium
Wednesday 29 August 2007 7pm "
" YOKO ONO'S CUT PIECE (1964)
Performed by John Noga, graduate assistant, The University of Akron
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Master of Arts Administration program
Introduction by Kevin Concannon, associate professor of art, UA
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 7 pm
Akron-Summit County Public Library
(The Akron-Summit County Public Library is the site of the performance, and is not a sponsor.)
Cut Piece
Yoko Ono's performance, Cut Piece (1964), first performed by the artist herself in
Kyoto, Japan, in 1964, will be performed this evening by graduate student and assistant
curator of the IMAGINE PEACE exhibition, John Noga. The exhibition Yoko Ono
IMAGINE PEACE, Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace, curated by Kevin
Concannon (with John Noga), is on display through September 7th at the Mary Schiller
Myers School of Art's Emily Davis Gallery in Folk Hall (150 E. Exchange St, Akron)
on the campus of The University of Akron.
While Cut Piece is now widely understood as a feminist performance piece, Ono's early
performances of the work were commonly understood quite differently. Ono performed
the piece a number of times between 1964 and 1966. At the time, she spoke of it as a test
of her commitment as an artist. She frequently told interviewers a story about the
Buddha in which he comes across a hungry lioness and her cubs. taking pity on her
plight, he hurls his body off a cliff above the lioness, scattering the pieces of his body to
offer nourishment to the animals. At the moment of his leap, he achieves enlightenment.
Ono also often discussed the piece as an attempt to move beyond the artist's ego. The
artist, she explained, often gave his audience what he thought they should have. She
wished instead for the audience to take what it wanted from the work. With Cut Piece,
she expressed this quite literally.
The performance score (instructions) calls for the performer to sit on the stage wearing
his or her best suit of clothing with a pair of scissors placed in front of him or her. it is
then announced that members of the audience may approach the stage one at a time to cut
a piece of clothing that they may take with them. The performance ends at the
performer's discretion. Witnessing the performance, it becomes clear that the cutters are
performers as well. The audience observes that each voluntary participation has their own
unique and distinct approach to the work.
in 2003, Ono performed the work personally for the last time. She did it, she says, for
peace, and against ageism, racism, and sexism.
Thank you for being a part of tonight's special performance of Yoko Ono's Cut Piece
The Mary Schiller Myers School of Art
The University of Akron "
YOKO ONO'S CUT PIECE (1964)
Performed by John Noga, graduate assistant, The University of Akron
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Master of Arts Administration program
Introduction by Kevin Concannon, associate professor of art, UA
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 7 pm
Akron-Summit County Public Library
This is one of the last images ever taken of John Lennon. This was taken on the day of his murder at approximately 5:00-5:30 PM on December 8th, 1980. The photographer is Paul Goresh. In this particular photo, John is turning and saying, "Is that all you want?" to Mark David Chapman, the man who would murder him approximately 5 hours later.
The Dakota is a co-op apartment building located on the north-west corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York at 1 West 72nd Street. It was constructed from 25 October, 1880 to 27 October, 1884,
The building was the home of John Lennon from 1973. It was also the location of his murder (outside the main gates) at the hands of Mark David Chapman on 8 December, 1980. Lennon's wife and widow, Yoko Ono, still has several apartments in the building. The Strawberry Fields memorial was laid out in memory of Lennon in Central Park directly across the road. Every year, Ono marks the anniversary of Lennon's death with a now-public pilgrimage to the memorial, and by placing a single lit candle in the window of one of her apartments.
" IMAGINE PEACE
IMAGíNATE LA PAZ
yoko ono "
Billboard Location:
Highway 78 ES 0.2mi. S/O Loop 1604 F/NE, San Antonio, Texas
" IMAGINE PEACE
IMAGíNATE LA PAZ
Billboard Locations:
1 / Highway 78 ES 0.2mi. S/O Loop 1604 F/NE
2 / Thousand oaks NS 1.2mi. W/O Wetmore F/NW
3 / Bandera ES 150ft. N/O Ligustrum F/SE
4 / Austin highway ES 520ft. N/O Vandiver F/NE
5 / Rigsby NS 75ft. W/O Irwin F/W
6 / US 90 SS 0.6mi. W/O Callaghan F/W
7 / Grissom SS 0.2mi. W/O Timber Path F/E
8 / Military SW NS 300ft. W/O new Laredo Highway F/W
9 / Babcock WS 250ft. S/O Springtime F/S "
YOKO ONO: IMAGINE PEACE Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace
September 26th - October 28th, 2007
UTSA Art Gallery / Department of Art and Art History
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Download, print & display these posters in your window, school, workplace, car and elsewhere.
Post them on your Social Media feeds.
Send them as postcards to your friends.
We say it in so many ways, but we are one.
I love you!
Yoko Ono Lennon
1 December 2015
Vintage John & Yoko.
Archive 365 - 59/365
Droid Shots
Minneapolis, MN
Field Number: IMG_2012-25-23
____________________________
ARCHIVE 365 is a photo collaboration between skywire7 and QuoinMonkey featuring images from our archives. We will alternate posting once a day in our Flickr sets from July 1st 2012 through June 30th 2013. You can view our photographs at skywire7 Archive 365 set on Flickr and QuoinMonkey Archive 365 set on Flickr
Print & display in your window, school, workplace, car & elsewhere over the holiday season, and send as postcards to your friends.
If you don't see your language here, then send us your translation of
WAR IS OVER!
IF YOU WANT IT
Happy Christmas from John & Yoko
so we can make a poster for your language.
Also, if we've made an error or omission, please also contact: admin@IMAGINEPEACE.com. Thankyou!
These pictures were taken in Karuizawa, Japan, located in the prefecture of Nagano. John and Yoko regularly visited Japan and Yoko's relatives each year.
Exhibit C (Cut portion of the jacket worn by John Noga)
Private collection of Mikihiko Hori
" YOKO ONO CUT PIECE
performed by john noga
Akron-Summit County Public Main Library Auditorium
Wednesday 29 August 2007 7pm "
" YOKO ONO'S CUT PIECE (1964)
Performed by John Noga, graduate assistant, The University of Akron
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Master of Arts Administration program
Introduction by Kevin Concannon, associate professor of art, UA
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 7 pm
Akron-Summit County Public Library
(The Akron-Summit County Public Library is the site of the performance, and is not a sponsor.)
Cut Piece
Yoko Ono's performance, Cut Piece (1964), first performed by the artist herself in
Kyoto, Japan, in 1964, will be performed this evening by graduate student and assistant
curator of the IMAGINE PEACE exhibition, John Noga. The exhibition Yoko Ono
IMAGINE PEACE, Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace, curated by Kevin
Concannon (with John Noga), is on display through September 7th at the Mary Schiller
Myers School of Art's Emily Davis Gallery in Folk Hall (150 E. Exchange St, Akron)
on the campus of The University of Akron.
While Cut Piece is now widely understood as a feminist performance piece, Ono's early
performances of the work were commonly understood quite differently. Ono performed
the piece a number of times between 1964 and 1966. At the time, she spoke of it as a test
of her commitment as an artist. She frequently told interviewers a story about the
Buddha in which he comes across a hungry lioness and her cubs. taking pity on her
plight, he hurls his body off a cliff above the lioness, scattering the pieces of his body to
offer nourishment to the animals. At the moment of his leap, he achieves enlightenment.
Ono also often discussed the piece as an attempt to move beyond the artist's ego. The
artist, she explained, often gave his audience what he thought they should have. She
wished instead for the audience to take what it wanted from the work. With Cut Piece,
she expressed this quite literally.
The performance score (instructions) calls for the performer to sit on the stage wearing
his or her best suit of clothing with a pair of scissors placed in front of him or her. it is
then announced that members of the audience may approach the stage one at a time to cut
a piece of clothing that they may take with them. The performance ends at the
performer's discretion. Witnessing the performance, it becomes clear that the cutters are
performers as well. The audience observes that each voluntary participation has their own
unique and distinct approach to the work.
in 2003, Ono performed the work personally for the last time. She did it, she says, for
peace, and against ageism, racism, and sexism.
Thank you for being a part of tonight's special performance of Yoko Ono's Cut Piece
The Mary Schiller Myers School of Art
The University of Akron "
YOKO ONO'S CUT PIECE (1964)
Performed by John Noga, graduate assistant, The University of Akron
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Master of Arts Administration program
Introduction by Kevin Concannon, associate professor of art, UA
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 7 pm
Akron-Summit County Public Library
Martin Lewis (right), the British humorist and Beatles expert, was once again the master of ceremonies at the 2009 metropolitan New York Beatles convention. Here he chats with Earl Slick, the Staten Island-born guitarist who worked with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on their two "Heart Play" albums, Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey.
Slick had once been David Bowie's lead guitarist, replacing Mick Ronson in 1974. Slick didn't last long in that job, though, and he became a session player for the next several years.
Copyright 2009 by Steven Maginnis
Download, print & display these posters in your window, school, workplace, car and elsewhere.
Post them on your Social Media feeds.
Send them as postcards to your friends.
We say it in so many ways, but we are one.
I love you!
Yoko Ono Lennon
1 December 2015
Yoko Ono: touch me : Gallery LeLong, 528 West 26th Street, NY, USA
Apr18-May31 2008, Tue-Sat 10am-6pm
Print & display in your window, school, workplace, car & elsewhere over the holiday season, and send as postcards to your friends.
If you don't see your language here, then send us your translation of
WAR IS OVER!
IF YOU WANT IT
Happy Christmas from John & Yoko
so we can make a poster for your language.
Also, if we've made an error or omission, please also contact: admin@IMAGINEPEACE.com. Thankyou!
Do It (TV), 1995-1996
Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist
Shere Hite (2:07), Dave Stewart (1:44), Gilbert & George
(2:12), Michelangelo Pistoletto (1:46), Steven Pippin (2:08),
Yoko Ono (1:01), Erwin Wurm (1:23), Leon Golub (1:09), Nancy
Spero (1:28), Lawrence Weiner (:59), Eileen Miles (2:25),
Rirkrit Tiravanija (:59), Jonas Mekas (2:16), Ilya Kabakov (1:29),
Michael Smith (2:57), Damien Hirst (1:35), Robert Jelinek (1:49).
Agency: Art and Advertising
September 19 – November 8, 2008
Kevin Concannon, PhD, and John Noga, curators
Sometimes puzzling, sometimes provocative, works in advertising media by artists ranging from Marcel Duchamp to Jeff Koons to 0100101110101101.ORG have both delighted and disturbed audiences that are sometimes left to wonder exactly what it is they’re seeing. Indeed, artists have used the media of advertising to communicate content that often defies viewers’ expectations and frequently challenges them. Agency: Art and Advertising is an exhibition that explores artists’ use of advertising media as sites for works of art (as opposed to the more conventional use of advertising for the promotion of work) as well as its subject. The exhibition, curated by Kevin Concannon, PhD, and John Noga, will focus on works of art in and about advertising media from the 1960s to the present.
Artists themselves, who were largely critical of commercial culture when this “ad art” phenomenon first flourished in the 1960s, are now often ambivalent about –or even embracing of –the commercialism they once critiqued. Others simply choose to use advertising media in order to extend their reach beyond conventional contemporary art audiences. Agency: Art and Advertising examines the history of art in advertising spaces –and art that addresses commodity culture through the appropriation of advertising –as it has evolved over the past 50 years.
Stop and Stare
In conjunction with the exhibition, AGENCY: Art and Advertising, shown inside
the McDonough Museum of Art there are nine captivating works that are on view
outside the Museum’s walls. Dotting the Youngstown metropolitan area are
billboards featuring gigantic images created by artists Geoffrey Hendricks,
Marilyn Minter, Yoko Ono and John Lennon, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. These
spectacular images line the sky, compelling the public to stop and stare.
Agency: Art and Advertising
Catalog is available in the museum office or through our gift shop.
Exhibition Sponsors
Anonymous
Frank and Pearl Gelbman Charitable Foundation
Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation
Lamar Advertising of Youngstown, Inc.
Toby Devan Lewis
Ohio Arts Council
Innis Maggiore
McDonough Museum of Art
Tuesday through Saturday, 11-4pm
Wednesday 11am-8pm
Free and open to the public.
call 330.941.1400
htttp://mcdonoughmuseum.ysu.edu
" IMAGINE PEACE
IMAGíNATE LA PAZ
yoko ono "
Billboard Location:
Thousand oaks NS 1.2mi. W/O Wetmore F/NW, San Antonio, Texas
" IMAGINE PEACE
IMAGíNATE LA PAZ
Billboard Locations:
1 / Highway 78 ES 0.2mi. S/O Loop 1604 F/NE
2 / Thousand oaks NS 1.2mi. W/O Wetmore F/NW
3 / Bandera ES 150ft. N/O Ligustrum F/SE
4 / Austin highway ES 520ft. N/O Vandiver F/NE
5 / Rigsby NS 75ft. W/O Irwin F/W
6 / US 90 SS 0.6mi. W/O Callaghan F/W
7 / Grissom SS 0.2mi. W/O Timber Path F/E
8 / Military SW NS 300ft. W/O new Laredo Highway F/W
9 / Babcock WS 250ft. S/O Springtime F/S "
YOKO ONO: IMAGINE PEACE Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace
September 26th - October 28th, 2007
UTSA Art Gallery / Department of Art and Art History
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Download, print & display these posters in your window, school, workplace, car and elsewhere.
Post them on your Social Media feeds.
Send them as postcards to your friends.
We say it in so many ways, but we are one.
I love you!
Yoko Ono Lennon
1 December 2015
The LennonOno Grant for Peace was created by Yoko Ono Lennon to honour her late husband John Lennon’s dedication to peace and commitment to the preservation of human rights.
Created in 2002, this biennial award has always been given to two recipients.
To mark this special anniversary year, Yoko Ono presented this award to four recipients who have been selected based on their courage and commitment to peace, truth and human rights.
The recipients are:
Filmmaker Josh Fox wrote and directed the documentary feature film Gasland in 2010. Josh’s work is known for its mix of gripping narrative, heightened imagery and its commitment to socially conscious themes and subjects.
Barbara Kowalcyk was propelled into food safety advocacy in 2001, when her two-year-old son, Kevin, died after suffering an E.coli infection from tainted food. Barbara and her mother Patricia Buck created the Center for Foodborne Illness & Prevention (CFI) a national non-profit organization committed to improving public health by preventing foodborne illness through research, education, advocacy and service.
Author Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where nature and culture intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in the built environment. He is the author of numerous best sellers, most recently Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.
Author, poet, and activist Alice Walker is known for her brave stance against racism, sexism, and human rights issues. In 2009, she traveled to Gaza along with a group of 60 other female activists from the anti-war group Code Pink to oppose the controversial blockade and violence against Gaza by Israel and Egypt. Her book Overcoming Speechlessness documents her experiences in Gaza and abroad.
(In Spanish at the bottom)
Yesterday Getafe, a working class populated city at the South of Madrid, wanted to pay homage to the victims of domestic violence and prepared several acts during the whole evening and night to people aware about this social problem and as a way of telling to the victims that they are not forgotten.
Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, a huge Cedar tree, was placed in the afternoon by a Lorry mounted crane in the main square of the city calling the attention of the old people there walking and chatting under a friendly winter sun.
As I put the tag with Yoko’s wish in the tree to take a photo, they came around and one of them asked me with an ironic smile “Are you selling this tree? Is the price written in the tag? I laughed for his humorous way of approaching me, and his funny way of asking without asking, that it was a pleasure for me telling them about the Wish Tree and the International Day for the elimination of violence against women.
They started to talk about women in Getafe killed by their husbands and asked to participate. Nothing was prepared yet, and the whole thing was supposed to start at 5 p.m., but I forgot all protocol and provided them some tags and pens still in the bags and boxes and they were the first ones to tie wishes to the tree.
That square is the main witness of the energy of the city and of all the movements of its people during the whole journey, because when old people returned to their houses about 3p.m. children started to flow from the surrounding streets. They were very interested about the whole thing.
Pens and tags seemed to fly through the table we had set for people to write their wishes. They asked their parents to help them to tie their wishes and encourage them to write their own. It was amazing seeing them running from the table to the tree again and again and again with that special and beautiful energy children have, calling their friends in the distance to come and write wishes.
At 5 p.m. people started to build a path of light leading to the Wish Tree and in the stages around the square started some circus, dance, theatre and music performances, all of them related to the issue of domestic violence.
The major of the city tied to the Wish Tree the message sent by Yoko Ono to erase domestic violence and the women of Getafe read a manifesto against domestic violence. The most moving moment of the whole evening was when a very young girl read a letter to her mother killed for her father last year in Getafe.
The path of light to the Wish Tree grew and grew and people placed candles at its feet as a symbol of the presence of the 53 women victims of domestic violence in Spain last year.
Jorge Artajo
Installation organiser
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message from Yoko Ono:
Hi, Jorge!
I see that you are working, as usual.
We are at the point where we can end all violence very soon, by the effort of people like you.
Thank you.
yoko
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have just placed the WISH TREE in Getafe (Madrid). People will start tying wishes to erase domestic violence at 5 p.m (Madrid time) / 11 a.m (New York time) and will end at 9 p.m.(Madrid time) / 3 a.m. (New York time).
You can follow the event in real time in Twitter twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles
We will upload photos of the people once they put their wishes in the tree.
The tree is a Cedrus (common name Cedar), an evergreen mystical tree with scented wood that I chose it because of its beauty and because I felt it as a shelter for victims of violence and a healing place for tormented souls.
Acabamos de colocar en Getafe el ÁRBOL DE LOS DESEOS contra la violencia de género,y hemos colgado el mensaje que envió Yoko Ono expresamente para esta ocasión:
Borremos la violencia doméstica en este planeta!
Ama, ten esperanza, sueña y borra
Amor,
Yoko 2011
El acto empezará a las 5 de la tarde y concluirá a la 9 de la noche. Puede seguirse casi en directo en Twitter twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles
Vamos a ir colgando fotos de los eventos minuto aminuto durante toda la jornada.
El árbol es un Cedro (Cedrus) un árbol de hoja peremne y madera olorosa considerado místico que puede llegara vivir hasta dos mil años y que escogí por su belleza y porque lo vi como un refugio para las víctimas de la violencia doméstica y un lugar donde las almas atormentadas pueden llegar a encontrar la paz.
Animaos a venir.
Do It (TV), 1995-1996
Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist
Shere Hite (2:07), Dave Stewart (1:44), Gilbert & George
(2:12), Michelangelo Pistoletto (1:46), Steven Pippin (2:08),
Yoko Ono (1:01), Erwin Wurm (1:23), Leon Golub (1:09), Nancy
Spero (1:28), Lawrence Weiner (:59), Eileen Miles (2:25),
Rirkrit Tiravanija (:59), Jonas Mekas (2:16), Ilya Kabakov (1:29),
Michael Smith (2:57), Damien Hirst (1:35), Robert Jelinek (1:49).
Agency: Art and Advertising
September 19 – November 8, 2008
Kevin Concannon, PhD, and John Noga, curators
Sometimes puzzling, sometimes provocative, works in advertising media by artists ranging from Marcel Duchamp to Jeff Koons to 0100101110101101.ORG have both delighted and disturbed audiences that are sometimes left to wonder exactly what it is they’re seeing. Indeed, artists have used the media of advertising to communicate content that often defies viewers’ expectations and frequently challenges them. Agency: Art and Advertising is an exhibition that explores artists’ use of advertising media as sites for works of art (as opposed to the more conventional use of advertising for the promotion of work) as well as its subject. The exhibition, curated by Kevin Concannon, PhD, and John Noga, will focus on works of art in and about advertising media from the 1960s to the present.
Artists themselves, who were largely critical of commercial culture when this “ad art” phenomenon first flourished in the 1960s, are now often ambivalent about –or even embracing of –the commercialism they once critiqued. Others simply choose to use advertising media in order to extend their reach beyond conventional contemporary art audiences. Agency: Art and Advertising examines the history of art in advertising spaces –and art that addresses commodity culture through the appropriation of advertising –as it has evolved over the past 50 years.
Stop and Stare
In conjunction with the exhibition, AGENCY: Art and Advertising, shown inside
the McDonough Museum of Art there are nine captivating works that are on view
outside the Museum’s walls. Dotting the Youngstown metropolitan area are
billboards featuring gigantic images created by artists Geoffrey Hendricks,
Marilyn Minter, Yoko Ono and John Lennon, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. These
spectacular images line the sky, compelling the public to stop and stare.
Agency: Art and Advertising
Catalog is available in the museum office or through our gift shop.
Exhibition Sponsors
Anonymous
Frank and Pearl Gelbman Charitable Foundation
Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation
Lamar Advertising of Youngstown, Inc.
Toby Devan Lewis
Ohio Arts Council
Innis Maggiore
McDonough Museum of Art
Tuesday through Saturday, 11-4pm
Wednesday 11am-8pm
Free and open to the public.
call 330.941.1400
htttp://mcdonoughmuseum.ysu.edu
Zeiss Contaflex 35 TLR:
www.tlr-cameras.com/German/slides/Zeiss%20Contaflex%2035%...
Yoko Ono: Y E S
(In Spanish at the bottom)
Yesterday Getafe, a working class populated city at the South of Madrid, wanted to pay homage to the victims of domestic violence and prepared several acts during the whole evening and night to people aware about this social problem and as a way of telling to the victims that they are not forgotten.
Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, a huge Cedar tree, was placed in the afternoon by a Lorry mounted crane in the main square of the city calling the attention of the old people there walking and chatting under a friendly winter sun.
As I put the tag with Yoko’s wish in the tree to take a photo, they came around and one of them asked me with an ironic smile “Are you selling this tree? Is the price written in the tag? I laughed for his humorous way of approaching me, and his funny way of asking without asking, that it was a pleasure for me telling them about the Wish Tree and the International Day for the elimination of violence against women.
They started to talk about women in Getafe killed by their husbands and asked to participate. Nothing was prepared yet, and the whole thing was supposed to start at 5 p.m., but I forgot all protocol and provided them some tags and pens still in the bags and boxes and they were the first ones to tie wishes to the tree.
That square is the main witness of the energy of the city and of all the movements of its people during the whole journey, because when old people returned to their houses about 3p.m. children started to flow from the surrounding streets. They were very interested about the whole thing.
Pens and tags seemed to fly through the table we had set for people to write their wishes. They asked their parents to help them to tie their wishes and encourage them to write their own. It was amazing seeing them running from the table to the tree again and again and again with that special and beautiful energy children have, calling their friends in the distance to come and write wishes.
At 5 p.m. people started to build a path of light leading to the Wish Tree and in the stages around the square started some circus, dance, theatre and music performances, all of them related to the issue of domestic violence.
The major of the city tied to the Wish Tree the message sent by Yoko Ono to erase domestic violence and the women of Getafe read a manifesto against domestic violence. The most moving moment of the whole evening was when a very young girl read a letter to her mother killed for her father last year in Getafe.
The path of light to the Wish Tree grew and grew and people placed candles at its feet as a symbol of the presence of the 53 women victims of domestic violence in Spain last year.
Jorge Artajo
Installation organiser
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message from Yoko Ono:
Hi, Jorge!
I see that you are working, as usual.
We are at the point where we can end all violence very soon, by the effort of people like you.
Thank you.
yoko
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have just placed the WISH TREE in Getafe (Madrid). People will start tying wishes to erase domestic violence at 5 p.m (Madrid time) / 11 a.m (New York time) and will end at 9 p.m.(Madrid time) / 3 a.m. (New York time).
You can follow the event in real time in Twitter twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles
We will upload photos of the people once they put their wishes in the tree.
The tree is a Cedrus (common name Cedar), an evergreen mystical tree with scented wood that I chose it because of its beauty and because I felt it as a shelter for victims of violence and a healing place for tormented souls.
Acabamos de colocar en Getafe el ÁRBOL DE LOS DESEOS contra la violencia de género,y hemos colgado el mensaje que envió Yoko Ono expresamente para esta ocasión:
Borremos la violencia doméstica en este planeta!
Ama, ten esperanza, sueña y borra
Amor,
Yoko 2011
El acto empezará a las 5 de la tarde y concluirá a la 9 de la noche. Puede seguirse casi en directo en Twitter twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles
Vamos a ir colgando fotos de los eventos minuto aminuto durante toda la jornada.
El árbol es un Cedro (Cedrus) un árbol de hoja peremne y madera olorosa considerado místico que puede llegara vivir hasta dos mil años y que escogí por su belleza y porque lo vi como un refugio para las víctimas de la violencia doméstica y un lugar donde las almas atormentadas pueden llegar a encontrar la paz.
Animaos a venir.
ART METROPOLE
shop online at artmetropole.com
788 King Street West 2nd Floor, Toronto, Canada MSV 1N6
T 416.703.4404 E info@artmetropole.com
Shop Hours: Mon-Fri 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat 12-5p.m.
NEW PUBLIC ART CAMPAIGN
ADVERTISING BY
ARTISTS
CECILIA BERKOVIC
STEPHEN ELLWOOD
NESTOR KRUGER
YOKO ONO
Curated by
Andrew Zealley
February 2007 - April 2008
Art Metropole is pleased to announce a new print media program ADVERTISING BY
ARTISTS. Conceived and curated by Toronto artists Andrew Zealley, ADVERTISING BY
ARTISTS comprises four visual artists and five international print publications. The
resulting 16 ad-works will appear over the course of 15 months. Artists participating in
ADVERTISING BY ARTISTS include Cecilia Berkovic, Stephen Ellwood, Nestor Kruger
and Yoko Ono. The original ad-works created for the project are slated to appear in
selected issues of Border Crossings, BUTT, Cabinet, They Shoot Homos Don't They?,
and WIRE. The completion of the project will be documented by a book, published by
Art Metropole, featuring the complete set of ad-works, plus artist and program notes.
"ADVERTISING BY ARTISTS is an is an international print-media project conceived
to draw attention to Art Metropole's online presence and services - as well as a vehicle
for the selected artists to express their own ideas," states Zealley. "Over the coming
15-months, we look forward to challenge the conventions of advertising with pure
imagination. The rules? Each ad-work must include Art Metropole's logo and website
address... the rest is... art."
Each ad-work in the ADVERTISING BY ARTISTS series will also be featured online at
artmetropole.com - accompanied by online information about the artists and links to
related information.
ADVERTISING BY ARTISTS commences with the new issue of Border Crossings (Vol.
26/#1, Winter 2007), the Winnipeg-based contemporary art magazine that has created
a reputation for provocative artist-driven content. The new issue, released on February
2, 2007, features an ad-work by Toronto-based artist, Nestor Kruger, positioned within
the section of the magazine that is occupied by traditional advertisements. Kruger's
ad-work features many of the signifying gestures found in conventional ads, but
without the usual copy. Instead, the ad-work's image (lifted from the internet), is
accompanied by columns of horizontal lines which imply the space normally occupied by
text. A brief dialogue between William F. Buckley and Noam Chomsky is featured in the
print piece.
"The pulled caption is a viewer's comment/synopsis of the 1969 debate between
Buckley and Chomsky," explains Kruger. "[It's something] that I watched on youtube."
Each of the artists selected to participate in ADVERTISING BY ARTISTS are renown for
their media savvy - from Stephen Ellwood's sophisticated installation text works and
book-works, and Cecilia Berkovic's cultural/information-based imagery, to Yoko Ono's
famous global media campaign like WAR IS OVER (IF YOU WANT IT) and IMAGINE
PEACE.
For more information please visit www.artmetropole.com
For more information regarding Andrew Zealley please visit www.andrewzealley.com
For more information contact Ann Dean (416) 703 4400 or info@artmetropole.com
Art Metropole is a non-profit artists-run centre incorporated in 1974. We'd like to thank the
Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto
Arts Council, as well as private donors for their support.
Images courtesy of Art Metropole
Print & display in your window, school, workplace, car & elsewhere over the holiday season, and send as postcards to your friends.
If you don't see your language here, then send us your translation of
WAR IS OVER!
IF YOU WANT IT
Happy Christmas from John & Yoko
so we can make a poster for your language.
Also, if we've made an error or omission, please also contact: admin@IMAGINEPEACE.com. Thankyou!
" IMAGINE PEACE
IMAGíNATE LA PAZ
yoko ono "
Billboard Location:
Highway 78 ES 0.2mi. S/O Loop 1604 F/NE, San Antonio, Texas
" IMAGINE PEACE
IMAGíNATE LA PAZ
Billboard Locations:
1 / Highway 78 ES 0.2mi. S/O Loop 1604 F/NE
2 / Thousand oaks NS 1.2mi. W/O Wetmore F/NW
3 / Bandera ES 150ft. N/O Ligustrum F/SE
4 / Austin highway ES 520ft. N/O Vandiver F/NE
5 / Rigsby NS 75ft. W/O Irwin F/W
6 / US 90 SS 0.6mi. W/O Callaghan F/W
7 / Grissom SS 0.2mi. W/O Timber Path F/E
8 / Military SW NS 300ft. W/O new Laredo Highway F/W
9 / Babcock WS 250ft. S/O Springtime F/S "
YOKO ONO: IMAGINE PEACE Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace
September 26th - October 28th, 2007
UTSA Art Gallery / Department of Art and Art History
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Yoko Ono interview - full transcript
Yoko Ono interviewed by Simon Harper for http://www.clashmusic.com
Artist, singer, wife, mother, loved, loathed, legend, survivor - Yoko Ono is many things to many people, but the little person behind the big name is buried beneath a mountain of myths and misunderstandings. Clash flew to New York to meet the real Yoko Ono.
For obvious reasons, it’s quite disconcerting walking into the Dakota building. The imposing nineteenth century apartment block, which overlooks Central Park, was home to John Lennon and Yoko Ono throughout the Seventies, and, as you pass through the gates of the main entrance, you realise you’re walking in the last footsteps Lennon ever took. That Yoko still lives here, still passes the place where her husband was murdered twenty-nine years ago, demonstrates the strong-will, bravery and resilience of a woman that has endured years of antipathy purely for marrying the man she loved.
These thoughts are hurtling through my head, overwhelming the nerves that were earlier festering in there and stretching down to the pit of my stomach, as I crossed the cobbled entry and into the lobby. I’m here to talk about Yoko’s new album, ‘Between The Sky And My Head’, and to focus on the pioneering spirit of the vivacious seventy-six-year-old, but the inescapable weight of her past looms large, and dominates my mind as I’m led through the winding corridors and, eventually, into her apartment - the former home of John Lennon.
Yoko Ono does not appear from a ball of flames, nor a puff of smoke. Instead, she humbly emerges from a doorway, dressed casually in a black tracksuit (and of course her ever-present shades), and walks meekly up to shake my hand. She commands your attention with only her presence.
‘Between The Sky And My Head’ is the first Yoko Ono album to be co-produced with her son, Sean (and the first release on his own Chimera Music label). It betrays her age by embracing the modern strains of garage rock, electro, dance and ambient classical, and, ironically, will be released in the wake of The Beatles’ latest explosion.
Sitting down at her kitchen table, I sneak a look around the room we are in - walls are decorated with Japanese prints, photos of John and Yoko, and a Lennon calendar; he still permeates her life, clearly. She asks for the air conditioning to be turned off - meanwhile I’m suffering, still recovering from the forty degree heat outside - and then the conversation begins to flow. With every answer comes a shy chuckle, she peers over her glasses and stares straight into my eyes. With just a look, I know if my line of questioning has strayed too far, and I change tack. We start, naturally, at the beginning...
You apparently became heavily involved with art and music while at college...
No, no, not really... Did I tell you this or did you read somewhere that...
I read that you’d...
About the fact that I went to school, pre-school; you don’t call it nursery, it’s called Jiyugakuen. Jiyugakuen is like a freedom garden - when you translate it it’s garden of freedom - it was a school in Japan. I’d say it was maybe still there. In the 1930s my mother put me in there. It’s a school where you get very early music education: perfect pitch, harmony, everything.
They start you young.
Yeah. It was very interesting thing that happened then - I didn’t think it was anything at the time, but one of the homeworks was to listen to all the sounds and the noise of the day and transcribe it into music notes. Isn’t that amazing?
It’s very kind of New Age now, isn’t it?
New Age, yes. And in music you start to sort of develop a kind of ear that’s very different. For instance, they would just ask you to listen to the sound of the clock going ‘ding, ding, ding, ding’, and they’d say, ‘Well, how many times did it ring?’ And you have it in your head, so you have to repeat in your head, that sort of thing. It was a very, very interesting education I got.
You wrote a piece for Clash a couple of years ago - we asked you to do a New Year’s message, and you wrote about growing up in Japan after the bomb. We just marked the anniversary for Hiroshima bombing...
Oh, I remember it; I remember very clearly. It’s a very interesting thing: my father travelled a lot and he came to New York, and we came to New York and we lived in Scarsdale or somewhere like that, briefly, and then just before the war started there was incredible tension between the United States and Japan, and we were all warned that we should go back to Japan. So, we all went back to Japan, and then sure enough there was a war; it started. It was a very, very difficult time really.
Do you think that your generation that remember the bomb grew up with a different perspective on life?
Yes, and I’m very lucky that I had that experience because otherwise I would have been one of those kids, those prep school kids that are like, ‘Ha ha everything’s okay’, but no, it wasn’t okay at all. We were evacuated to some farm land, and the farmers were not very nice to us; they felt like, ‘This is our time, you city people’. So, we didn’t get very much food, for instance. I mean, that was a surprise; I’d never had an experience like that - of course, very few people have that kind of experience.
How do you mark the anniversary now? I know you Twittered a message on Hiroshima day. Do you think about it when the day comes round, or is it a day you try not to think about it?
Well, each time there was a message where they wanted to play my music or something, whatever it was... You can’t ignore it, but also I think it’s very good to bring it out and ask people to remember it, because it might just sort of discourage some people to again create a war like that. I don’t know, it seems like we’re just screaming in the wind or something.
Did the musical training of your youth teach you to write more instinctive, or is it more intellectualized?
Instinctively. I think that I’m trying to stick to spontaneity of my inspiration, and it’s an emotional accumulation or outburst; I think that’s more real. I was just saying in another interview, with this record especially, I felt there’s a hodge-podge element that I love. The thing is, when you put a classical music record out, in your head, just like when I was four-years-old, there’s so many different noises going in and out - you’re experiencing what is in the street or what is inside the house, and then at one point maybe you have jingles coming out - but you ignore that, you sanitise it, and you make sure that there’s just classical music only on the CD. Even just that is so boring for me, so with this, you notice with this record that I made, there’s so many different styles just jumping out; the first is the screamer, and then right after that there’s the dance stuff, and then you think it’s gonna be dance music but then there’s pop music or something. In other words, I was not scared to not streamline it, in terms of the forms of music.
As testament to your diversity, back in the ’60s you played with the jazz legend Ornette Coleman - and you just did the Meltdown Festival in London with him.
I was so amazed; it was exciting, because both of us survived in a way (laughs). There’s so many people that we knew that are not here anymore; it was interesting.
Is he a good friend to work with?
He was always a very gentle person, I think that’s how he survived maybe. I’m sure there’s some anger in him, of course - the racism and all that and how they were treated. And also jazz is not a very popular field, compared to rock and pop and all that, so he must have gone through all that and some pain as well, but instead of that, he’s always sort of gentle; it’s amazing.
Your reputation and acceptance from the general public and Beatles fans has become gradually more prevalent over the years. You’re finally being embraced...
Yes, I’m much more accepted now, thank God I’m sure, but when you go on the Internet, some people are still extremely upset with me! (Laughs)
How do you cope with that level of cruelty?
Isn’t it amazing? It’s a bit scary, so that’s why I’m always very careful; in that sense I’m not displaying my courage. (Laughs)
Having to continue your career after John’s death was a very brave move in the first place, and the fact that you’re still here with a new album is very admirable.
I was so surprised and interested in that film called The Pianist, where the pianist is that Jewish guy who’s always being banged around, but he’s always [mimes playing the piano] - in his head he’s always playing the piano. That’s how I survived. Many composers, like my first husband [composer Toshi Ichiyanagi]; we would be in a restaurant and he would be sitting there like, ‘da da dun da’ [mimes playing piano on table], and I’d be doing that too. We are not communicating, we are living in our heads; that was the reason I survived, I think - it was the music that made me survive.
Your previous album, ‘Yes I’m A Witch’, endeared you greatly with the indie scene - you gave your songs to some excellent artists to remix: Cat Power, Antony Hegarty...
Aren’t they incredible?
And it was a great album. Was it a good album to make? Did you have fun hearing what they did to your music?
I really respect Antony. Antony is an incredible artist, the way he sings and everything is fantastic!
It’s out of this world isn’t it?
You see, I think about sounds as an independent art from composition. In the ‘Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band’ [1970 album] , when we did [opening track] ‘Why’, I was interested in breaking the sound barrier with it. Breaking the sound barrier for the music world, like ‘Boom!’ And we did it.
Making an impact!
We did it! But of course instead of what we thought we did, I had a huge, huge trash can, saying ‘Yoko Ono’s record’, and everybody’s standing like this (throwing the record in), in Japan. John was like, ‘In Japan? It’s your own country!”
Were you aware of the artists who worked on ‘Yes I’m A Witch’ before you made the record? Did you trust them with your songs?
Well, it all just happened, like, ‘Well, what do you think about this one?’ I was not aware of them, but I immediately became aware of him [Antony] especially.
So, this album is co-produced with Sean.
Yeah, isn’t that great?
What’s your working relationship like?
I was very nervous - well, at first I was not nervous... When Sean said, ‘We should do an album - your album...’ Now I say, ‘Don’t say “your album”: it’s a Chimera [Sean’s label] album, okay? Don’t say “your album” like it’s something you want to push outside.” And he said, ‘Okay, let’s do it.’ So I said, [sheepishly] ‘Okay...’ I had no concern about it. I thought it was great; we’d have the chance to be together. I don’t know how you feel about your parents - there’s a point where you just want to ignore your parents, and just call when you need money! (Laughs) ‘Hello, do you have any cash?’ The thing is, I thought, it’s not just that I’m gonna get a call - I’m gonna be with him. That was my concern; that was the reason why I wanted to do it initially. And then a few people said, ‘Are you sure you want to do this? Because mother and son can be very difficult.’ Maybe, but I didn’t really think that. There was something instinctive about it; I didn’t think it was gonna be bad, and it wasn’t bad - in fact, we sort of like discovered each other - well, maybe Sean would say that he didn’t discover me... (Laughs) I discovered the fact that he knew so much of my music; that was a real surprise. And so, as a music director, first of all he got the best studio for me, that was the best thing - it’s not known to be the best maybe, but he said, ‘It’s good and it has this funky sound; this will be the best.’ It just makes you comfortable being in there, too. It’s not a state-of-art kind of place. And then he collected all those musicians.
He chose a combination of Japanese and American musicians...
Well, the Japanese ones, it’s a very strange thing. Sean wanted me to come to Tokyo to join him in this concert he was doing. He said, ‘Why don’t you come to this concert? I’d like you to be a part of it.’ And I said, ‘You mean I’m gonna go all the way to Japan just for this one concert? That sounds crazy!’ But then I thought, ‘Okay, it’s my son, it’s my son.’ So, I went there. I started to sing, and there was a point that - this was a song that was like a constructed song and they probably knew it - but in the end I was just going for the spontaneity kind of thing, spontaneously going to vocal modulation - I’m not using the word ‘scream’ because you’re going to use that anyway! And it just went up and up, and I thought, ‘They can’t follow this - they won’t know when I stop it.’ And I just went, [raises hand] ‘Uh’, and they just stopped. I thought, ‘Oh my God, who are these people?’ I just looked back and it was the Japanese trio [Yuka Honda and members of Cornelius’ band], and I thought, ‘Hmmm, okay!’ So, when Sean said we should make a record, I said, ‘Okay, well get those two or three.’ So that was the main character, the main sort of people.
Did he tend to boss you around in the studio?
No, he didn’t. Well, alright, so he tried probably! (Laughs)
Your stature and your fame means that you could probably work with anybody, so why did you choose these Japanese and Americans, and what did you hope they would do together?
I’m probably arrogant to the point of unbearable! (Laughs) The idea of Plastic Ono Band was that anybody can be the band. Before I met John - the name Plastic Ono Band was named by him, so we didn’t have the name at the time - I was asked to go to a university or something in the United States, pre-John Lennon, so I go, and they of course want me to perform as well. So I just said, ‘You, you and you, why don’t you just come and play?’ In other words, I didn’t check their credentials, because I thought I can just do it and it will be beautiful. And so, with this group too - the three Japanese musicians were very good - then Sean invited all these other people; they were all very good. I think in terms of the spirit of things, not credentials.
The art is in the spontaneity.
Yeah.
You were, and still are, a great symbol and crusader of women’s rights.
Yes!
Now that you’re in your seventies, do you think you’re leading the way to defy the expectations of septuagenarians?
(Laughs) Well, I’m not that conscious of it. If I am conscious of it, whether I’m conscious or not, if I can’t make it I can’t make it. But it happens to be, you know, I’m not feeling old; I’m feeling very excited about life every day.
That’s good, and it’s reflected in the vitality of the music.
Well, after I finished that one, it was like, ‘We have to do a second one, Sean!’ And he was saying, ‘Yeah, yeah, we have to’, because I got some ideas, of course; when you’re making music you get more inspired.
Talking of improvisation, I read that most of the lyrics on the album are improvised. Do you think that it makes them less ripe for studying, or that since they came from your subconscious, they are much more of a window into your true thoughts?
Oh, definitely. For instance, some critics have criticised John for his lyrics being too personal, that his songs are personal. So? That’s why it’s good! (Laughs)
What else are you gonna write about?
You know what I mean? It’s crazy to think that if we create a fictional situation it is more legitimate. We don’t think that; I don’t think that. I’m giving my guts; I’m giving myself.
Are you aware of the lyrics when you’re making them, or afterwards, when you listen to what you sang, do you go, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’ Do you know where the lyrics are coming from when you sing them?
I don’t know, and even when I listen to it after I don’t know. I don’t think about it that way. It’s very interesting, one of the CDs - we call it CD now, but LP - somebody in this building, actually, said, ‘You know, on your album, your voice sounds very much like the Spanish when they dance...’
Flamenco?
Yeah. I said, ‘Oh, really?’ And, you see, I never connect those things, but then I thought maybe I was a Spaniard one day a long time ago, who knows?
There are a number of references to water throughout the album - is that of any significance to you?
Water’s very important. I created a song called ‘We Are All Water’, remember, a long, long time ago, and the reason is because we are 90% water.
We’re tidal.
We are water - we better be very careful. Oh, this is another thing that I just learned - it’s a new thing I learnt, and I really think it would be good if you can just put it in... You know, we know, and we keep saying as hippies or yuppies or zippies (laughs), that what we do or what we think affects the whole world - you, me, anybody. So then now, two scientists discovered that - they were checking how the waves are made in the ocean - just anything that gets into the water, whether it’s a tiny acorn or a little boy splashing, affects the whole ocean. Isn’t that amazing? But you know what that means? It’s not just on land, but it’s in the ocean - both ways we’re all together; we’re just one.
It’s the same on land as well.
Yeah, of course. The land one, we always said whatever we think or whatever we say affects everybody.
My favourite songs of the album are perhaps the most poignant ones, ‘Memory Of Footsteps’ and ‘I’m Going Away Smiling’.
Oh, really? Oh, that’s so sweet of you.
What do those ones mean to you? Are they poignant to you as well?
Yeah. ‘I’m Going Away Smiling’ made me cry, of course.
It made me cry as well!
(Laughs) At Meltdown I just couldn’t sing it. I just thought, ‘Okay, I better sing it with the lyrics in front’. It was a disaster in that sense - it wasn’t a disaster, but it’s just very difficult. Like, ‘Walking On Thin Ice’ is a very difficult song for me to sing because there are so many memories. It’s that kind of thing. That’s one that’s very difficult for me to sing. The other one, ‘Memory oO Footsteps’, yeah, that one too, but not as much as ‘I’m Going Away Smiling’. After I wrote ‘I’m Going Away Smiling’ and recorded it, I thought I better put the end bit in, you know, [the final line] “I’m alive!”
Yeah, it’s a defiant spirit right at the end. I didn’t know whether it was a happy statement or that you were surprised to be alive.
It was not a surprise. There’s a certain anger in that: ‘You think I’m dead, right? I’m alive!’ The reason is because we’re at the time when... it’s a very difficult time - all of us are scared shitless in a way - and of course the economic shock and some people thinking there’s a Doomsday coming or something, so it’s really good to sort of hammer things and say, ‘I’m alive!’ (Laughs)
People must presume that a lot of your songs about John. Is he still your main inspiration behind your music?
I never thought about that one.
I saw the Lennon exhibition at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Annex in New York... I’m so glad. It was the last time I was in New York. I was here for a day, and I thought, ‘What do I want to do? I’m here for a day what should I go and do?’
I’m so glad. Isn’t it great?
Yeah, it was fantastic! What were your plans for that exhibition? It takes you on a journey doesn’t it?
Well, it’s the New York City (years), and to focus on that period, which was a very important period: he was in love in New York City, and that’s where he was killed. So it’s a very, very important point in his life, I thought.
I found it very moving. It’s only a small space, but when you start you see the performances and the lyrics, and John is alive and well, and then it comes to the end, and it’s almost like in the space of this room you’ve been on that journey. You got criticism for including John’s bloody glasses and the clothes he was killed in.
I know. I thought I would get criticism. The point is, you can’t help it; if you want to do something good creatively, there’s always gonna be somebody saying there’s something wrong. That was a creative effort. I mean, the point is to put that in there. I knew that some people would be very upset, but I thought it was very important to do that, and you were sharing my extreme, extreme sadness that I felt at the time.
How much of your time is dealt with business affairs of The Beatles and does that detract from your own creativity or your own art?
I don’t know. It seems like a suitcase that you can fill more than you think, you know? (Laughs) It’s that kind of thing.
When you make decisions on John’s behalf, for what John would do, are those made personally by you or do you have people to give you advice?
Depends. Most of the time I get like twenty requests a week and then I have to sort it out; ‘This is a good one.’
Just to touch briefly on the new Beatles things that are coming out, the re-masters and the Rock Band, in terms of the Rock Band, what did you think when you were approached by that, did it excite you?
Yeah, it did excite me. John was like that and I am like that too, but we always just jump on a new media, and this is great. I even went to Boston when they were making it: fifty people, all young generation computer experts - they have to be young to understand it! (Laughs) They’re all there making the images, you know? It was very exciting.
It looks fantastic. It looks like it’s all gonna kick off in September
Isn’t that great?
It’s a good date, because John was a fan of the number nine.
Yeah, it’s great. I love it.
It’s 09/09/09.
Well, it’s a very strong thing, 090909, yeah.
And in terms of the re-masters, have you heard the new music, the re-mastered albums? They sound fantastic.
Which one?
They’ve re-mastered all the albums.
Isn’t that great?
I got to hear them in Abbey Road, and it was incredible.
You went to Abbey Road?
Yeah. You’re an active Twitter user, what do you make of the new kind of social network thing?
Listen, I’m into everything, right? (Laughs) It’s really great. I don’t answer [messages from] everybody, but some people are very into that step into future. For me it’s a very good education.
You’re very dedicated to humanitarian causes - what role do you think Twitter and getting your message out there can play?
Well, I’m glad that I can get new messages out there, because if I wrote a book or something nobody’s going to read it! (Laughs) What I mean is it’s always good to go with the new media, where they’re all there, so you can really talk to them. I think Twitter’s very good. How did Twitter become Twitter?
As in the name? I don’t know...
It’s a nice name, Twitter. (Laughs)
It’s almost as flippant as the act of Twittering itself. So, you’ve been advocating for peace for most of your life - do you think the world has become more aware of the plight?
Yes, yes, yes! When John and I were doing it, it was sort of like Salvation Army kind of people standing on street corners, handing out pamphlets or something, and nobody wanted to know. We did the Bed-In [in Amsterdam and Montreal] - we thought it was pretty good, but at the time they didn’t think it was pretty good! (Laughs) But I think the humour of it, I thought surely they get the humour of it? We’re in bed! (Laughs)
Yeah, ‘Come on, keep up!’
Yeah, but they didn’t; so funny.
With everyone that reads your Twitter updates or any message you put out, if you could inspire them to do something, what would you hope that they did?
Well, I think that together we’re getting wiser and wiser, and if I can contribute to that in some way I’m very happy, because becoming wiser is almost synonymous to getting this world into a peaceful place.
We’ll get there eventually.
Yeah, we’re getting there.
Do you see this album as a competition to the latest releases by young bands, or are you competing on a level with your contemporaries?
I never thought about those things. When you make an album, you make an album that you think is good and great - most artists are narcissists, and they have to be if they want to survive! (Laughs) So, you make an album as best as you can, and what are you gonna do, check who’s gonna listen to it? I never know what’s going on in that sense. You keep saying ‘young people’, but I never ask their age, first of all; they might be fourteen or they might be fifty, I don’t know! (Laughs)
You said earlier about the patchwork quality of the songs.
Yeah, I love that.
Were you worried that it wasn’t gonna fit, that people might think it doesn’t work together?
I couldn’t care less. Maybe that’s why I was slow in being appreciated, because I don’t care about those things. But the first song, ‘Waiting For The D-train’, some people were saying, ‘Don’t put ‘Waiting For The D Train’ first, because they’re all gonna think that the whole thing is gonna be a screamer.’ I said, ‘This is selectivity, we select the people.’ If they don’t want to hear about this album after that, then go to another album.
I don’t think it matters nowadays anyway - people don’t listen to albums anymore, they listen to songs. If you get a good song, people will download the song or buy the song. Sean has obviously come into his own as an artist...
Did you know that? The point is, it seems that before, before I recognised it or started to understand or appreciate it, it seems like everybody knows that. He’s a very good, talented musician.
Yeah, obviously he’s forged his own career.
I don’t know, he could get crushed by the history of it all. (Laughs)
It’s commendable that he isn’t!
Yeah, he just survived, you know?
When you see him working in music, who do you see more of in him, is it you or his dad?
His dad, definitely, because I was making [music] with John and I remember that experience, so I have to - it’s bad, maybe - but I just compare it; I can’t help it.
Yoko Ono interviewed by Simon Harper for ClashMusic.com
Yoko Ono delivers flowers to John Lennon's memorial, Stawberry Fields, Central Park, NYC. Captured by Rocketboom.
(In Spanish at the bottom)
Yesterday Getafe, a working class populated city at the South of Madrid, wanted to pay homage to the victims of domestic violence and prepared several acts during the whole evening and night to people aware about this social problem and as a way of telling to the victims that they are not forgotten.
Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, a huge Cedar tree, was placed in the afternoon by a Lorry mounted crane in the main square of the city calling the attention of the old people there walking and chatting under a friendly winter sun.
As I put the tag with Yoko’s wish in the tree to take a photo, they came around and one of them asked me with an ironic smile “Are you selling this tree? Is the price written in the tag? I laughed for his humorous way of approaching me, and his funny way of asking without asking, that it was a pleasure for me telling them about the Wish Tree and the International Day for the elimination of violence against women.
They started to talk about women in Getafe killed by their husbands and asked to participate. Nothing was prepared yet, and the whole thing was supposed to start at 5 p.m., but I forgot all protocol and provided them some tags and pens still in the bags and boxes and they were the first ones to tie wishes to the tree.
That square is the main witness of the energy of the city and of all the movements of its people during the whole journey, because when old people returned to their houses about 3p.m. children started to flow from the surrounding streets. They were very interested about the whole thing.
Pens and tags seemed to fly through the table we had set for people to write their wishes. They asked their parents to help them to tie their wishes and encourage them to write their own. It was amazing seeing them running from the table to the tree again and again and again with that special and beautiful energy children have, calling their friends in the distance to come and write wishes.
At 5 p.m. people started to build a path of light leading to the Wish Tree and in the stages around the square started some circus, dance, theatre and music performances, all of them related to the issue of domestic violence.
The major of the city tied to the Wish Tree the message sent by Yoko Ono to erase domestic violence and the women of Getafe read a manifesto against domestic violence. The most moving moment of the whole evening was when a very young girl read a letter to her mother killed for her father last year in Getafe.
The path of light to the Wish Tree grew and grew and people placed candles at its feet as a symbol of the presence of the 53 women victims of domestic violence in Spain last year.
Jorge Artajo
Installation organiser
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Message from Yoko Ono:
Hi, Jorge!
I see that you are working, as usual.
We are at the point where we can end all violence very soon, by the effort of people like you.
Thank you.
yoko
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We have just placed the WISH TREE in Getafe (Madrid). People will start tying wishes to erase domestic violence at 5 p.m (Madrid time) / 11 a.m (New York time) and will end at 9 p.m.(Madrid time) / 3 a.m. (New York time).
You can follow the event in real time in Twitter twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles
We will upload photos of the people once they put their wishes in the tree.
The tree is a Cedrus (common name Cedar), an evergreen mystical tree with scented wood that I chose it because of its beauty and because I felt it as a shelter for victims of violence and a healing place for tormented souls.
Acabamos de colocar en Getafe el ÁRBOL DE LOS DESEOS contra la violencia de género,y hemos colgado el mensaje que envió Yoko Ono expresamente para esta ocasión:
Borremos la violencia doméstica en este planeta!
Ama, ten esperanza, sueña y borra
Amor,
Yoko 2011
El acto empezará a las 5 de la tarde y concluirá a la 9 de la noche. Puede seguirse casi en directo en Twitter twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles
Vamos a ir colgando fotos de los eventos minuto aminuto durante toda la jornada.
El árbol es un Cedro (Cedrus) un árbol de hoja peremne y madera olorosa considerado místico que puede llegara vivir hasta dos mil años y que escogí por su belleza y porque lo vi como un refugio para las víctimas de la violencia doméstica y un lugar donde las almas atormentadas pueden llegar a encontrar la paz.
Animaos a venir.
" IMAGINE PEACE
IMAGíNATE LA PAZ
yoko ono "
Billboard Location:
Thousand oaks NS 1.2mi. W/O Wetmore F/NW, San Antonio, Texas
" IMAGINE PEACE
IMAGíNATE LA PAZ
Billboard Locations:
1 / Highway 78 ES 0.2mi. S/O Loop 1604 F/NE
2 / Thousand oaks NS 1.2mi. W/O Wetmore F/NW
3 / Bandera ES 150ft. N/O Ligustrum F/SE
4 / Austin highway ES 520ft. N/O Vandiver F/NE
5 / Rigsby NS 75ft. W/O Irwin F/W
6 / US 90 SS 0.6mi. W/O Callaghan F/W
7 / Grissom SS 0.2mi. W/O Timber Path F/E
8 / Military SW NS 300ft. W/O new Laredo Highway F/W
9 / Babcock WS 250ft. S/O Springtime F/S "
YOKO ONO: IMAGINE PEACE Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace
September 26th - October 28th, 2007
UTSA Art Gallery / Department of Art and Art History
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, revived last year by Yoko Ono Lennon and Sean Ono Lennon after a long hiatus, played an exclusive concert at Háskólabíó, Reykjavík on October 9th 2010, John & Sean Lennon's birthdays.