Yoko Ono...

(...or, when I grow up I want to be a feminist performance artist.)

Once upon a time, John Lennon was visiting a gallery where Yoko was exhibiting her art. One of her pieces consisted of an apple placed on top of a ladder. John climbed the ladder and took a bite of the apple. Yoko thought that was wonderful and they began talking. Eventually, they got married and invited the press into their honeymoon suite to talk about peace.

BODY PIECE
Stand in the evening light until you become transparent or until you fall asleep.
1961 Summer

Yoko is often painted as some ball-busting, divisive and talentless bitch who bore the sole responsibility for breaking up the Beatles. Yeah, right. God created the Beatles and Yoko split them up -- however the Beatles had been splitting up artistically at least since Rubber Soul. It is very obvious whose work is who's. Frankly, I think this inner tension makes for significantly better music, but I sincerely doubt that the Beatles would have stayed together even if John and Yoko had never met.

(I find the reaction that many men have to Yoko Ono -- unbridled, irrational hatred and bile -- very interesting. Of course, by interesting, I mean chauvinist.)

PAINTING TO HAMMER A NAIL
Hammer a nail in the center of a pieceof glass. Send each fragment to an arbitrary address.
1962 Spring

Ultimately, I see Yoko Ono as a woman who has had a profound effect on cultural perceptions of art and the role of the artist. Her work is very internal and you have to digest it slowly. I think she's finally being recognized as she deserves. In the last decade she's done a few retrospective shows which were widely lauded.

And having attained the rich vintage of 74, she's still performing. The kid got some footage of her at the Pitchfork Music Festival. I wish I could have filmed his description of her show, complete with the audience flashing penlights at her interactive concert event. It was like meeting Yoko all over again to hear it from the sardonic perspective of a saavy adolescent.

When I'm in my 70s, I hope to be able to pull off a minidress and a new act half as well.

CLOUD PIECE
Imagine the clouds dripping.Dig a hole in your garden to put them in.
1963 Spring

All of the pink segments are from Grapefruit, by Yoko Ono.