Jan
17
Yoko Ono: Play it by Trust
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I just think this so cool that I have to share it, despite the fact that I still consider myself “on break.” I have pretty low tolerance for art world speak and analysis and there are many, many times when I just look at something and go … “wow…. I could do that myself…… that’s… dumb.” You know, the white sheet of paper on the wall or the scribble that an art critic could write an analytical paper on.
Cara at The Curvature did a feminist analysis of Yoko Ono that was pretty good. I had never known much about her other than she’s blamed for The Beatles having broken up and that I didn’t really like her music, but it prompted me to read all I could about her.
One of the things she’s known for is her conceptual art. I was not aware there was such a thing until I read about her, to be honest. I guess part of it is that a lot of her art is very much about engaging the audience and the way they contribute to a piece. An example of this is Cut Piece, in which she sits on the stage in her best clothing and invites the audience to come up and cut off a piece for themselves. She says one of the purposes of the piece is in part to promote peace and to challenge racism and sexism. I haven’t really been able to find much analysis on it, but it was fascinating to me to hear that audiences reacted differently around the world.
But I created this post to showcase the white chess set. It is called “Play it by Trust” and people viewing the exhibition can actually play chess with it. I’ll admit that with my cynical attitude towards certain types of art the implications of a white chess set took a bit of time to sink in. I am putting Yoko’s explanation of it under the cut as I think it’s better to think about it on your own first.
Jan
7
“On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
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“I think my eyes were knocked open and they don’t close. I sometimes wish I could close them and look away…. But once you’ve seen certain things, you can’t un-see them, and seeing nothing at all is as political an act as seeing something.”
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
- Arundhati Roy
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