Yoko Ono - A Groundbreaking Artist, Activist and Fighter behind the Myth of her Name
"Even her earlier pieces often demanded the viewers’ participation and forced them to become involved with the artwork. Staged in 1964, one of her most famous works was the Cut Piece, where the members of the audience were invited to cut off pieces of her clothing until she was naked, thus making an abstract commentary on discarding materialism and its impact on society."
I've noticed that it's not uncommon for the themes of nudity to be included in art pieces, especially if the artist is also a woman. It reminds me of the numerous Guerilla Girls posters about women and their inclusion in the MET. It's interesting how nudity can be so subjective when put in the hands of different people to convey different meanings.
"The “pre-Lennon” phase in Ono’s artworks encouraged a Zen-like dissolution of thought, and after she met the love of her life, she began shifting towards a greater campaign for peace, using not only galleries but the mass media as well. The couple explored avant-garde art, music and film."
Despite her shift, some could argue that the themes of her pre-Lennon phase leaked into her post-Lennon phase, as zen is a form of meditation deriving from Mahayana Buddhism that focuses on peace within the self. Maybe Ono was also trying to find peace with herself in terms of identity since her relationship with Lennon became what she was defined for?
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Performance, Pedagogy, and Philosophy
"And so art wasn’t really within my vision as a child: I never quite know what inspired me, other than the moments where I did see and take in art. I don’t know what drove me to identify as an artist because it wasn’t within my familial background—not that I know of anyway—and my only exposure to art, growing up in Queens, were the moments here and there where we visited the Queens Museum and the Metropolitan Museum."
Being someone who grew up viewing and appreciating art while having family who loved to draw, it's interesting to see the different paths of life artists cross that eventually influence the work they do in the present day. It makes me wonder about the type of art they could've created had they grown up with an artistic background.
"Especially as I grew into my path as an educator, I found it equally important to share the work of my colleagues and those artists of color that inspired me with both young folks that I identified with (meaning those that looked like me) and white kids. For a white student, particularly a young white student, seeing the mode of expression of an artist of color can shift as much of their worldview as it does for a student of color."
Diversity and inclusivity are incredibly important to represent in the art world, especially artists of color. To showcase that art can be done by anyone, regardless of race, can influence people to see talent and meaning rather than prejudicially judge solely on the person who created the art.
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Performance art is a form of art which easily grabs a viewer's attention and, like visual art, is able to be interpreted in a myriad of ways. However, I believe performance art works better at attention grabbing as its main form of entertainment is through movements of the body or sounds. Humans have evolved to spot movement, as it meant life or death for our ancestors. Yoko Ono and Shaun Leonardo tackle perception (or lack of) the self and how others can perceive a person. Ono's Bag Piece seeks to remove all discrepancies of gender, age, or race from whoever steps into it, leaving only behind the soul. This soul is incomprehensible to the viewer, as it's impossible to see through the bag. This leaves the participants as something that can only be imagined. Shaun Leonardo's Your First Interaction with Law Enforcement had anonymous participants give accounts of their first interactions with police, which were then hung on a wall accompanied by the title. It demonstrates how people's perceptive of a group of people can be warped by an experience with them, as first impressions are everything.
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