ART-PREVIEW:Yoko Ono-Transmission
In the ’60s, Yoko Ono became increasingly involved in conceptual art, especially in performance, as an occasional member of Fluxus, she rejected the idea that an artwork must be a material object. “In Cloud Piece” (1963) for example, she instructs us to imagine digging a hole in the garden, and putting clouds into it.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Kunsthal Charlottenborg Archive
The exhibition “Transmission” explores the unique ways in which the Yoko Ono transmits her profound messages of artistic philosophy and peace through numerous channels to reach people throughout the World. The concept of the exhibition is to reactivate the works once again and show them as they were originally intended, thus the works also extend beyond the Kunsthal into the city of Copenhagen and the rest of Denmark, and by extension, the world. Using advertising spaces in magazines and newspapers, postcards, TV, radio, posters, record covers, books, and even sky-writing, she has been able to reach out to individuals as well as great masses of people. In the late ‘60s and ‘70s, together with John Lennon, she did Bed-Ins for Peace, press conferences in bags, and wrote songs that questioned war and discrimination against women and all peoples. The exhibition focuses on Yoko Ono’s publications, printed matter in the widest sense, and on how the artist has been able to disseminate her work, from small whispers to be broadcast through mass media. The exhibition includes scans of her original typescripts for “Grapefruit”, an original “War Is Over!” poster, rare popular record sleeves (for example from the early Plastic Ono Band), flyers for exhibitions, newspaper ads, photographs of “Bed-In for Peace” and “Word Piece” billboards from around the world, films, participatory installations. At the same time, the exhibition portrays how Yoko Ono as an avant-garde artist suddenly became part of the epicentre of popular culture. The exhibition is shown in two galleries on the first floor of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, with sound installations in the staircase space and the elevator. The Kunsthal’s cinema screens a series of rare films, dating back to the early ‘60s Japan, where Yoko Ono already made significant artistic contributions, which the rest of the world became familiar with throughout the ‘70s. The work “Imagine Map Piece” is shown in the foyer, and the exhibition continues from here into the city and extends to the rest of country in the form of posters, billboards and stamps.
Info: Curators: Jon Hendricks, Lars Schwander and Michael Thouber in collaboration with Yoko Ono, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Nyhavn 2, København K, Duration: 13/10-17-18/2/18, Days & Hours: tue-Fri 12:00-20:00, Sats-Sun 11:00-17:00, https://kunsthalcharlottenborg.dk
