Yoko Ono

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Yoko Ono, “Growing Freedom,” three-channel film on the art and life of John and Yoko, featuring footage of “Cut Piece,” 1964

installation view at Contemporary Calgary, 2020 (photo by Blaine Campbell)

An all-white chess set, trees swagged in paper tags, and upturned military helmets filled with the skies from jigsaw puzzles are but a few of Yoko Ono’s interactive works at Contemporary Calgary. This soul-searching exhibition, Growing Freedom, shines a light on Ono’s artistic legacy, underscoring both her creative generosity and the cornerstones of her art: action, participation and imagination.

A comprehensive touring exhibition organized by Montreal’s Phi Foundation for Contemporary Art, it offers an immersive and informative experience that allows visitors to indulge in history and partake in Ono’s simple yet thought-provoking offerings. Her show, on view until Jan. 31, puts viewers at the centre of her universe, where they can ponder, imagine, dream and act. 

Born in Japan in 1933, Ono grew up in Tokyo before settling in New York City in the 1950s. She fell in with the burgeoning avant-garde art crowd, becoming an important figure in the neo-Dadaist Fluxus movement alongside friends that included musicians John Cage and La Monte Young. 

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Yoko Ono, “Growing Freedom, The instructions of Yoko Ono and The art of John and Yoko,” installation view at Contemporary Calgary, 2020 (photo by Blaine Campbell)

The show features a selection of Ono’s instructional works, including Wish Tree, which beckons viewers to write their wishes for peace on white paper tags. Hung on eucalyptus trees planted in white ceramic pots, these thought blossoms celebrate hope and the power of collaboration.

Also included is Water Event, which saw Ono invite six Alberta-based artists to produce a water container. She supplied the water. These collaborative gestures are both thought-provoking and sublime. For example, Adrian Stimson’s work, We’ve Made Our Water Bed …, is a clever play on the phrase, “you’ve made your bed, now sleep in it,” but is also a nod to Ono and John Lennon’s Bed-In for Peace project, as well as Ono’s fondness for white objects. 

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Yoko Ono, “Water Event,”1971/2020, with water sculptures by Adrian A. Stimson, “We've Made Our Water Bed …,” and Kablusiak, “Qullik Asulu Utchuklu," both 2020

water provided by Yoko Ono; and rear, John Lennon and Yoko Ono planting acorns at Coventry Cathedral, 1968 (photo by Keith McMillan, ©Yoko Ono), installation of Yoko Ono, “Growing Freedom,” at Contemporary Calgary, 2020 (photo by Blaine Campbell)

Many of Ono’s artistic collaborations with Lennon are on view, including documentation and artifacts from the 1969 Montreal Bed-In and the recording of the anti-war anthem, Give Peace a Chance. Through an abundance of video footage, photographs and objects, we are given a glimpse into the couple’s relationship and the influence of their art and activism. It’s an exhilarating and exhausting archive.

Overall, the show highlights Ono’s role as a pioneer in conceptual art and how she was often the visionary behind collaborative works with Lennon. While her creative prowess was often overshadowed by her celebrity marriage, her impact was seminal. She challenged traditional ideas. Does art have to be a discrete object that sits on a plinth or a wall or can it be words on a wall that prompt someone to imagine a painting or perform an act? Instructions like “listen to a heartbeat” or “watch the sun until it becomes square” are but a few of the action-poems posted in black vinyl lettering on the gallery’s walls.

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Yoko Ono, “Painting to be Constructed in Your Head,” 1962/2020

and “Lighting Piece,” 1955/2020, installation view at Contemporary Calgary, 2020 (photo by Blaine Campbell)

The exhibition also features footage from Cut Piece, 1964, one of Ono’s earliest performance works. After reciting an instructional text, Ono kneels silently on a stage, a pair of scissors on the floor beside her. One by one, audience members approach to cut off pieces of her clothing. The voyeurism and violent undertones make it unsettling to watch yet it is a pivotal work that's seen as an important precursor to later feminist performance art. It's also pioneering because viewers become agents in creating the piece.

While Ono’s work is minimalist and might, at first glance, feel simplistic, it allows us to think about other things. Our humanity, perhaps. Our hopes for the future. Or how simple activities like hammering a nail or mending broken pottery can be powerful metaphors for making the world a more peaceful place. ■ 

Yoko Ono, Growing Freedom: The instructions of Yoko Ono & The art of John and Yoko, at Contemporary Calgary from Sept. 17, 2020 to Jan. 31, 2021.

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