Not a member? Join now Members log-in here SmartTicket Cart Favorites RSS | Mobile | iPhone | Newsletter

Cult of Yoko

Imagine peace love imagine peace love imagine - By Morgan Short, Dec 11, 08

I was expecting an atmosphere of unseasonable, balmy warmth at the Yoko Ono exhibition, "Fly." If one was to go on the fervid media attention her brief visit to Shanghai garnered alone, it would be more than logical to assume that the sun does indeed shine out of this woman's ass.

Alas, Ono has come, gone, and taken the photo ops and exclusive interviews with her, and her self-curated exhibition "Fly" is nearing the end of its run (closes December 15). The exhibition, of course, was always a distant second to the presence of the artist herself -- Yoko the celebrity has always been far more interesting than Yoko the conceptual artist. But what about this exhibition anyways? Is it shit or what?

In a word: yes. But it's somewhat powerful in its shittiness, which makes it curiously one of the more affecting exhibitions I've been to in a while. We paid a visit this afternoon (and paid 30rmb to get in) and spent as long as we could in that eerie box of a room before finally getting totally creeped out and leaving.

Basically, the Ke Center has devoted the entire first floor of its facility to Ono worship, although the collection of works -- billed as a retrospective of the artist's "50-year career" -- is primarily contained in a single large, white and ghostly room. Therein ye shall find I think seven pieces of conceptual art bridging Ono's early Fluxus work in New York (selections from her 1960s instructional text "Grapefruit"), with her contemporary work (reproductions of 2004's "My Mummy was Beautiful" -- main image with this article -- SmSh loves nipple shots).

The rest of the works fall into that hazy period in the middle, conceived of when the artist wasn't busy making albums, movies, or smashing the Beatles. Although the exhibition is organized as an introduction to the artist, supporting documentation is sparse and inconclusive -- sometimes the gallery has provided a little background to the works and sometimes they've relied on airy suggestions penned by the artist herself.

Although Ono has been doing retrospectives of her work for about twenty years now, there are several noticeable omissions to "Fly," the latest incarnation of her Greatest Hits catalogue. Absent is anything to do with "Cut Piece" -- her performance piece where attendees are invited to cut the artist's clothes off -- anything to do with her film "Bottom," and "Ceiling Piece." As a whole the exhibition feels thrown-together, cursory, slip-shod, shallow, and opportunistic. An overwhelming feeling of 'is this it?' pervades.

Of the works that aren't instantly forgettable is "Wish Tree," where guests are invited to write their wishes on a piece of paper and hang them on a tree, and "Telephone Piece," which simply consists of a rotary dial telephone on a podium. The accompanying information explains that Yoko Ono herself will call the exhibition at random from somewhere in the world. Imagine!

The most powerful element in "Fly" is a documentary of the Yoko Ono projected on a large screen at the back being played on repeat. It features the artist doing Yoko Ono things like speaking at press conferences and attending her various openings around the world. Over top of this is that song "Imagine" being played over and over and over again, and if you spend anytime in this room you get the sensation that you're being brainwashed into some creepy anachronistic hippie zen cult.

In the end you feel sort of implicated in the celebrity of Yoko Ono. The decades of facile conceptual art is really just so much detritus and supporting fodder to the true artwork, which is the construction of the spacey Warholian persona of Yoko Ono herself. It's bizarre to visit this exhibition so late after the artist has flown on to the next retrospective or fund raiser or whatever it is she usually does. It's eerily lifeless, desolate, and barren -- a husk that's been abandoned. She flies. We stay.

If you visit don't be surprised if you linger a little longer by that telephone waiting for Yoko to phone and tell you love is all you need.

***

"Fly" ends December 15. Entrance fee is 30rmb.

• Tags:
• Art
 

Contact the Author Printable Version Email this Article

 

• Mar 13 » Pervert Party Perverted?
• Mar 2 » Summer Babes
• Feb 10 » Myriad Forms
• Feb 5 » Hearts & Minds
• Jan 26 » Bachelor Party Suggestions

• » Come on baby, JUE the locomotion
• » Sittin around in boxers, eating Hello Pizza...
• » 30 years of 'Class and Sophistication'
• » Bikes, busking, and beers
• » Sometimes his rhymes just hypnotize me