Ideas are central to Yoko Ono’s art, often expressed in poetic ways. Ono’s exhibition at the Tate modern explores her role in experimental and avant-garde circles in New York and Tokyo. Ono spent most of her childhood in Tokyo, Japan where she studied classical music and learnt how to translate everyday sounds into musical notation. In 1966 Yoko Ono moved to London where she ended up living for 5 years. She quickly became embedded within a counterculture network of artists, musicians and writers including her husband and longtime collaborator John Lennon. Her work encompasses a fusion of musical and artistic competencies strongly linked to her biographical context. The title of the exhibition explores Ono’s desire to stimulate the imagination. The artist notes “The only sound that exists to me is the sound of the mind. My works are only to induce music of the mind in people… In the mind-world, things spread out and go beyond time”. In her exhibition at the Tate, Ono invites the viewer to realise her artworks, to construct paintings in their mind and share memories and wishes. Most importantly, Ono’ works invite imagination, this collective call to action is a provocation to change the world one wish at a time.
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream.
A dream you dream together is reality”
A key component of her thematic exploration of imagination is the ‘Wish Tree’. Drawing inspiration from her childhood in Japan, Ono recalls going to temple courtyards and writing out her desires on a thin piece of paper, folding them gently and tying them around the branch of a tree with a piece of string. Trees surrounding temples were always filled with people’s wish knots, which resembled white flowers blossoming from afar. Ono has been installing variations of the ‘Wish Tree’ around the world since 1996. The viewer is invited to participate, writing their wishes for peace and tying them to the branches of trees. The installation is an exercise of hope that gives light to the strong wishes of world peace from all corners of the planet and gives encouragement, inspiration and a sense of solidarity in a world filled with fear and confusion. Over 2 million wishes have been collected by Ono, the wishes will continue on in connection with the ‘Imagine Peace Tower’, a monument erected by Ono in Iceland in memory of her late husband John Lennon.
The development of Ono’s ‘Instruction Pieces’- written instructions that ask readers to imagine, experience, make or complete the work challenges the concept of art in itself. Ono’s set of instructions represent an array of ideas that in themselves may be considered artistic content. Some exist as a verb such as ‘FLY’ or ‘TOUCH’ while others consist of short phrases such as ‘Listen to a heartbeat’. More complex instances of Ono’s instructions command the viewer to construct a metaphysical artwork within the mind, requiring them to imagine an entirely abstract picture whilst meeting a set of criteria. For instance her ‘PAINTING TO BE CONSTRUCTED IN YOUR HEAD’ (1962 spring) requests the viewer to ‘Go on to transforming a square canvas in your head until it becomes a circle. Pick out any shape in the process and place on the canvas an object, a smell, a sound or a colour that came to your mind in association with the shape’. All sensorial characteristics inherent to the human condition are activated in this process. Ono is attempting to shift traditional perceptions of conceptual art by classifying seemingly mundane bodily functions such as the ability to smell or hear sound as activities carried out within the artistic realm.
Throughout her career, Ono has used her art and global media platform to advocate for peace and humanitarian campaigns, initially collaborating with her late husband John Lennon. Yoko Ono’s ‘Music of the Mind’ is a testament to her visionary spirit and unwavering commitment to peace. The exhibition invites visitors to engage with her art, not as passive observers, but as active participants in a shared experience. Ono’s work transcends boundaries, challenging conventional notions of art and encouraging introspection and contemplation.
