Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono is an interdisciplinary artist which includes performance, film, music, and activism. Her work often focuses on themes of peace, feminism, personal experience and audience participation with legendary works including the performance Cut Piece, 1964 and her foundational book of instructions, Grapefruit,1964. Within this she has collaborated her partner and husband John Lennon (1940-1980). Over her long career Ono has released thirteen solo studio albums and nine collaborative albums, including the 1981 Grammy award winning Album of the Year, Double Fantasy. Ono continues to exhibit at numerous venues, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York (2015) and Tate Modern in London (2024). In a career spanning more than seventy years, her work as an artist and activist aims to challenge the boundaries of artist and audience.
Bed-In, Montreal
In 1969 during the Vietnam War, artists Yoko Ono and John Lennon created two non-violent protest events called Bed-In for Peace in Amsterdam and Montreal. Each took place in a hotel room, using the bed as a place of sanctuary and they invited the world press into their room to ask questions about war and peace. This photograph by Ivor Sharp is from the Montreal event in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel at the end of May 1969 and has been provided by kind permission by the Yoko Ono studio. Through these non-violent demonstrations, Ono and Lennon invite us to reconsider the boundaries of activism and the potential for transformative action in even the most unexpected of spaces.
Image Description:
Exhibition photograph of a black and white photograph against a white wall in the White Column space. The artwork photograph has been taken of the performance ‘Bed In’ of artist Yoko Ono (Left) and John Lennon (right) sitting on a bed in their pyjamas, both looking dishevelled whilst holding a single flower each in their hand.
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External Links:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yokoono/