YOKO ONO / Grapefruit, 1964-2021
PRESENTING THE EKO 8 ART PROJECTS
YOKO ONO / Grapefruit, 1964-2021
EARTH PIECE; WATER PIECE; PAINTING FOR THE WIND; SHADOW PIECE; CLOUD PIECE; ANIMAL PIECE; PAINTING TO LET THE EVENING LIGHT GO THROUGH; PAINTING TO SEE THE SKIES
facsimile of artist's instructions as published in Grapefruit (1964, Wunternaum Press, Tokyo) © Yoko Ono
courtesy of the artist and Studio One, New York
Yoko Ono's earliest works were often based on instructions that she communicated to the public in verbal or written form, which radically questioned the division between art and the everyday. In 1964, she compiled more than 150 of her instructions in her ground-breaking artist's book, Grapefruit. The instructions – at turns poetic, humorous, unsettling, and idealistic – range from feasible to improbable, often relying upon the reader's imagination to complete the work. For EKO 8, eight instructions are being presented. These include the instructions, EARTH PIECE, WATER PIECE, SHADOW PIECE, CLOUD PIECE, PAINTING FOR THE WIND, etc. first published by the artist in an initial edition of 500, Wunternaum Press, 1964. "What all this has to offer is a way of thinking, of being conscious in the world. The universe is a place of wonder, Ono means to tell us, but we must remind ourselves to look. This is the key to creativity, to being present, which Grapefruit insists, begins with every one of us." (David L. Ulin, LA Times)
In this EKO 8 exhibition where listening to the sound of the earth features as a theme and where observations on time, both geological time and fragile human time in relation to other species beings is a concern, the profound, focus on the power of imagination in order to see differently, really matters. As others have observed communication with the world at large has been Ono's lifelong mission – "Art to me is a way of showing people how you can think," Ono says. "Some people think of art as like beautiful wallpaper that you can sell, but I have always thought that it is to do with activism." Indeed, in recent years her defiant ecological messages and vision have seen her speak out about fracking with 'Imagine No Fracking' campaign and support of numerous other ecological campaigns.
Since emerging onto the international art scene in the early 1960s, Yoko Ono (b. 1933, Japan) has made profound contributions to visual art, performance, filmmaking, and experimental music. Born in Tokyo, she moved to New York in the mid-1950s. Over the next decade she lived in New York, Tokyo, and London, greatly influencing the international development of Fluxus and Conceptual art.
