Oh, Yoko…by Ben Houge

Oh, Yoko…
December 2nd, 2008

Let me say first that I’m coming at you as a Yoko Ono 小野洋子 fan. Back in Seattle, the composers collective of which I was a member, Seattle School, did a tribute show to her and other Fluxus artists, named for her 1964 book Grapefruits. One of my pal Korby’s prized possessions is the letter from Yoko Ono’s people authorizing us to use her image in promotion of the show. Check out this article that ran in the Seattle Weekly.

I think a lot of the poetic little text pieces that comprise Grapefruits, notwithstanding a strand of dark deadpan humor, evince a certain optimism, the idea that by simply unhinging your brain a bit, you can see the world with fresh wonder. So I headed out to the Ke Center to catch her Fly show opening last weekend with this mindset, in a spirit of goodwill and hope—hope that was mercilessly dashed almost upon arrival.

As we entered the compound, we were engulfed by a huge sea of people waiting to enter. Evidently we had missed a formal welcoming address from Ms. Ono, delivered to the throng from on high in a makeshift podium erected on the gallery’s third floor balcony. But the gist was reiterated in a video that played repeatedly on the side of the building as we waited to be granted admission. The concept was simple: “I love you, Shanghai.”

To transmit this simple phrase, Ms. Ono employed an algorithm of her own devising to encode her message of love into an abstract sequence of flashing lights. She adroitly counted the number of words in the expression “I love you” (there are three), and assigned each word a number corresponding to its position in the sequence of words that comprise this short phrase. Using this system, “I love you,” can be rendered on a flashlight as, “flash,” “flash flash,” “flash flash flash.” In case you didn’t bring a flashlight with you, small souvenir “Onochord” keychain flashlights were distributed to certain lucky attendees.

It’s hard to explain why this is so dumb, but let me try. First of all, the act of encoding this message in lights does nothing to increase its potency or tweak its meaning, so there’s really no reason to do it in the first place. I mean, you could imagine using flashing lights to suggest some kind of emergency message or beacon or whatever, but she didn’t do anything to develop the idea along those lines; she was just flashing lights at people she could just as easily have been talking to. An even bigger problem is that there’s no coherence (let alone elegance or robustness) in the method of encoding she employed; it’s simply a blunt, arbitrary assignation. If you want a binary, human intelligible, time-based encoding system, either do the work to develop a complete and meaningful system yourself (and accept the fact that no one will take the time to learn it), or adopt an existing system, such as Morse code, so you’re at least deferring to other on matters in which you yourself lack competence.

This system belies a fundamental lack of understanding about how language works. Further, it actually erects an artificial barrier between people, because who, outside of the small subset of humanity who crammed into this show, will recognize a sequence of 1-2-3 as meaning “I love you?” (By contrast, you would touch a significantly larger percentage of humanity by simply speaking the words in English, or Mandarin or Spanish or Hindi, for that matter.) It serves only to obfuscate what is apparently intended to be a very sincere and meaningful message. And on top of that, what is the need for this kind of communication in today’s environment of high speed digital communications, when a voice can be relayed vast distances on a laser?

I suppose that what Ms. Ono was trying to achieve with her light code is related to a story she recounted in the video being screened to the impatient masses outside the museum. She talked of how John Lennon once invited her back to his home in rural England and requested a piece she had listed among her works in “Ono’s Sales List,” a catalogue raisonné from 1965 that was appended to the 1970 expanded edition of Grapefruits. In category E, “Architectural Works (priced according to contractors’ arrangements and cost of property),” type A is listed as,

LIGHT HOUSE-a house constructed of light from prisms, which exists in accordance with the changes of the day.

A footnote informs readers that, “Patents applied for, machines, and models for Architectural Works, may be viewed by appointment, only written requests accepted.” Of course, there were no plans, and when John Lennon asked her to build one in his backyard, she responded, as she said in the video, that she had no idea how to build a lighthouse.

The video then flashed us forward to the 21st century, and the LIGHT HOUSE has finally been constructed on Viðey Island, Reykjavik, Iceland. (I don’t know the details of construction, but at a certain point it strikes me as goofy to claim authorship for a work in which all you said was “build a lighthouse,” and someone builds one for you.) It’s clear from the video that Ms. Ono views this as a way of finally granting Mr. Lennon his request. Throughout the video, “Imagine” played over archival footage of the doting couple (raising the uncomfortable suggestion that Ms. Ono’s work couldn’t stand on its own without invoking the music and likeness of the great rock star), suffusing the whole endeavor in a nostalgic and completely backwards-looking sentimentality. Here she was in Iceland, 2006, flashing her coded “I love you” into the sky, hoping that the man who wrote “Imagine there’s no heaven” will hear and smile down on us.

(And let me say for the record that I wouldn’t mind if I never hear that stupid song again. Give me “Glass Onion” any day.)

It’s clearly a very lopsided kind of love that Ms. Ono is promulgating. Nothing about the show suggested equality between lovers; instead the very architecture of the show enforced power relationships, as when Ms. Ono delivered her opening speech from a pedestal high above the crowd, or when the selective bouncers in the third floor lounge limited entry to her performance to VIP’s only. But most egregious was the 1-2-3 encoding that was also the crux of the show. Instead of promoting free love for all, Ms. Ono was saying that we could only love her on her own terms by adopting her goofy and arbitrary code, and she even had the audacity, as an artist in a position of privilege and power, to suggest that we should use this same meaningless code to express our love to each other, as if the love of others required her mediation in any way.

In any event, the message of love was clearly lost on the crowd gathered at the entrance, where the scene was less like a 60’s love-in and more like the frenzied mob scene that erupted when Comme des Garçons launched their fashion line at H&M a week or so prior. There were flashes of anger, name-calling, and pushing as the guards attempted to regulate the flow of people into the gallery. And when she made her hurried exit later on, a crowd pressed upon her all the way from the elevator to the waiting car outside.

(And let me pause to ask at this juncture, What is up with you fickle people? Prior to her arrival in Shanghai, I didn’t know a single person who would voluntarily go on the record, as I did above, as a Yoko Ono fan. I, for one, think the Beatles ruined Yoko as much as the opposite may have been true. But in general conversation, if her name comes up, it’s usually with a mocking grin and a rolled eye; she’s blamed for the Beatles’s demise, decried as the queen of caterwaulers, and made to embody the disconnected capriciousness of “avant-garde art.” Yet on the night of her opening, the place was thronged with people. I can only attribute this to Shanghai’s insatiable obsession with celebrity in all its guises.)

And once the antsy crowd was inside, what spectacle greeted them? A sparse and cursory retrospective show. Photographs of women’s breasts with the caption “My Mommy Is Beautiful.” A wall on which people could write about how much they love their mommies. A tree on which people could hang their wishes. Selected works from Grapefruits enshrined in frames on the wall (which strikes me as somewhat contrary to the spirit in which they were meant to be experienced, but maybe that’s just me). As for her performance, I didn’t make it into the third floor VIP area to see it for myself, but Jutta did, and what she demonstrated to me later was a kind of half-hearted Chicken Dance.

Just inside the door was a new instruction piece entitled “Mend Piece for Shanghai,” which looked disappointingly as though it could have been torn right from the pages of Grapefruits. I really can’t be bothered to go back to the gallery to copy it down verbatim, but it was something along the lines of

Mend piece for Shanghai
Mend.
While mending, think of all the people in the world.
Think of how much you love them.
Mend the world.

Or some such fluff.

And the fact that this piece sounds fresh plucked from Grapefruits illustrates the biggest problem with Yoko Ono’s work. There’s none of the depth or maturity that you would expect from a renowned 60-year-old artist. It seems she’s been living in a bubble since the 60’s. Since her catapult to celebrity, her youthful efforts have been alternately enshrined and reviled, and she never grew beyond them. As often happens with celebrities, the very fact of fame costs them the frisson of interaction with peers that can hone great ideas, for who dares to argue with an established star? But the price is great, for it is this contact with people (as equals), the experience of the quotidian, where real love (I’m tempted to add, “the John Lennon kind,” in reference to that song from the Beatles Anthology, but that would probably come off as a bit hokey) truly springs.

My Love Will Turn You On

After an infamous forty years in the contemporary art world, the legendary Yoko Ono arrived in Shanghai last week for the opening of her first exhibition in China. The show was certainly an event to remember, but not for the artwork. Presented at the Ke Center for contemporary art and curated by Ono herself, this retrospect of instructional works titled Fly attracted an outstanding number of visitors. On opening night at half past seven, a large crowd of individuals stood outside the museum in the drizzling rain. Some members of the audience were Western many were Chinese, some still in their work suits and others no more than two years of age all stood staring up at the rooftop while Yoko Ono herself chanted to the crowd 'I Love You'. She certainly had a strange way of showing it.

Following this performance, Yoko Ono made her way downstairs escorted by her body guards, while her fans stood shoulder to shoulder in front of the locked gallery doors. People started to murmur and grow restless as John Lennon's Imagine began to play from speakers around the courtyard with Yoko's monotone voice speaking over the audio. Suddenly the glass doors opened and the first group of people anxiously scrambled in. Soon there after the doors were shut again and security guards assumed their positions. It was another fifteen minutes before the next throng of people were admitted-- frustration building. After another thirty minutes of pushing and shoving the majority of people finally fought their way into the museum over hurtles of pesty wooden benches, which later turned out to be Yoko Ono's Ex It piece. Once inside viewers found themselves in a singular brightly lit room, a scarce amount of Yoko Ono's work distributed around the space. Her famous text pieces, The Blue Room Event, and more recent Wish Tree were all accounted for, not much else.

As usual the theme of this Yoko Ono show is love, and probably peace too. Perhaps the chaos outside the museum was intentionally orchestrated so that fans would have a new found appreciation for their own lives when they finally made it across the boarder to safety. It certainly made for great publicity though. The initial excitement was impressive--a seemingly ingenious tactic of corraling individuals and building anticipation. Sadly the reward was disappointing and my love for Fly, ultimately fleeting.

ONO AND THE MOB

Yoko Ono's current exhibition "Fly" at Ke Contemporary Arts Center was hailed as Ono's grand retrospective exhibit, spanning the diverse and prolific career of one of conceptual art's best-known artists. It also promised to be one of the biggest art events in Shanghai of the year. It was not just an artist that was coming to Shanghai, it was the celebrity herself. In fact, the promotional material for the opening specifically stated that Ono would be in attendance. These expectations were confirmed upon my arrival to the opening, in which I was greeted with a determined crowd, all trying to catch a glimpse of Ono from afar as she performed on the roof. The concept to begin the exhibition outside and then for the crowd to transition inside the gallery space seemed like an innovative approach to navigating the visitor's experience, yet it turned out to be a disaster. The crowd became a mob, and the mob pushed and shoved to get inside the door. At times it was uncontrollable even for security. Yoko Ono gave a performance inside of the gallery space for the first small group of visitors. I happened to be in the second shift of visitors, so I watched from afar as she left the gallery with bodyguards and cameramen in toe. By the time I was let in the gallery, I was immediately disappointed. The selection of work, which was curated by Ono herself, was not a retrospective in any sense, and left the visitor with an ambiguous understanding of her oeuvre. This, in fact, has been Yoko Ono's historic problem, in which John Lennon once commented that she was the most famous living artist, but no one knew what she did. At the end, the exhibition's relative failure could have lied in the numerous setbacks of government censorship. The exhibition's title derived from the title of a film by Ono, which was censored by the government for issues of nudity/eroticism. This film would have presumably served as a central piece, which the exhibition seemed to be missing. It is peculiar to note that the government would censor "Fly" but allow her "Mommy is Beautiful” series, which used blatant nudity of the female body. The exhibition was also supposed to accompany a citywide billboard campaign, which would have extended the show outside of the white walls and attempted to engage a wider public. The billboard campaign was also rejected by government censorship. Further, the exhibition was supposed to include her instructional series posted throughout the city. I tried to put these posters up on campus and they were taken down within hours. In one sense, the Yoko Ono opening was a success because it brought together a huge audience, which was bigger than any other one event I have seen in Shanghai thus far. However, the chaos of the crowds and the level of exclusivity in admittance could be said to go directly against Ono's message of peace and love. Overall, with the level of censorship and the inability to carry out the intended program, possibly China is still not ready for Yoko Ono.

Yoko Ono- Fly opening

Nov 22nd

 

An unexpected interactive behavior performance and something else

If it is not for Yoko Ono, I would not have gone out in such a rainy night. On my way to Ke Center for Contemporary Art center, I could not keep thinking: what kind of exhibition this famous woman will bring to us?

 

The first outdoor performance was Onochord: I love you. Ono used flash lights and said I love you to audiences and asked all the audiences say that to your family, your friends and people around you. Although there were not so many audiences using flash lights interacted in the performance due to some objective reasons, lots of them said it directly in words. After we went into the main hall, I found several works share some similarities with the first one, like” Mend piece –for shanghai”: four tables, 16 chairs, several broken cups or plates on the desks ,audiences are invited to glue or tie the broken pieces back to original shape. After mending, all works will exhibition on the shelves. These pieces of paper hanging on the wall are also part of performance. One of it tells us to “Shake hands”: a person stand behind a cloth with a hole in the middle and shake hands with people in front of him/her. This performance starts this Tuesday in metro stations, supermarket, restaurant and other public areas and every pass-by can join the performance and bring it home. ”Telephone”: the telephone standing in the lobby, in fact, is a performance, which has not started till Yoko leave china. When in somewhere else, she will call the number at any time, no matter who answer the phone, can talk with the artist and conduct the performance.

 

All the above works can be call “Instruction art”: the artist proposes the idea and the performance conducts by both creator and audience. among all the instruction art pieces in this exhibition, we can see that the behaviors, like shaking hands, mending, answering the phone, themselves are very common in our daily life, but the artist put these common behaviors into carefully designed artistic environment to interfere our usual thinking habit and common concepts .moreover, it also produce questionable exploration towards the long existed values.

 

When we decided to leave, I found the biggest installation we supposed to see first:” Exit”. 100 coffins were lying in order at the front of the entrance. Holly grows in the upside of every coffin if the coffins stand for death; perhaps the holly stands for our hope, a possibility of reviviscence and life. Though the image of 100 coffins might be shocking, green and living hope gives us another aspect of observation towards death and other disasters, as well as reflection about the dedicate and fragile situation of our current situation. 

 

Maybe there is another interactive performance or instruction in this exhibition. It followed by the “I love you” section, when thousands of people tried to pour into the building. After that much squeeze and push, someone finally shouted out the key words: we come here for love, not for violence! This performance ended up successfully with everyone’s entry to the building.

 

Actually, before this exhibition, what I knew about Yoko was just her marriage to john Lennon, her legendary love story and world known frame. But the other side of this celebrity is an artist who has sincere concerns and questions about our fragile living situation, who has the ideas and creativity to produce artistic events, which come from usual concepts and habits.

 

Yoko Ono in Shanghai: flash, flash flash, flash flash flash

I was actually extremely excited to see Yoko Ono in real life. I never knew much about her except that she was John Lennon’s wife and, according to my friend, she was the one who “broke up the Beatles.” I quickly did a Google image search of her before I popped into a cab to head to the opening and I saw pictures of her, very young and VERY hippie looking. So off I went to the exhibition, only knowing that she was an artist who was a hippie who John Lennon fell deeply in love with. I walked into the KE Arts Center’s area and was immediately bombarded with tons of chic, artsy looking people standing around underneath the night’s light drizzle. On the movie screen placed outside along the brick wall was a movie of Yoko Ono’s Onochord’s from all over the world. In the European countries she had a massive following as millions upon millions of fans clamored together to repeat her “I Love You” flashlight messages. It seemed almost cult-like.

The people who I went with to the exhibition were mostly just like me—students with no background in the arts. Their initial reactions to the pieces were overwhelmingly negative. They felt that here Yoko Ono was, promoting peace and love and happiness to the world, and by what means? By turning a flashlight on and off six times? What does that actually do to further her message…how does this make an actual difference? I admit her message seems a bit idealistic and ridiculously unattainable. If she thinks that flashing a light six times to random strangers will make the world a better place, she should definitely take her head out of the clouds. However, maybe I am still not jaded from the reality of the world, or maybe I am just not as cynical as my friends, but I thought the message was really sweet. It was endearing that she was trying to promote love to the world, as it justifies her past as a hippie, and hey, what are hippies better known for than to spread love and peace? Her notion of world peace, love, and happiness is a nice one, but that is all it is. Without a concrete force or action behind her ideas, her ideas don’t ever leave the ground. She appeared at the Shanghai opening, her tiny self in her frail voice, attempting to rile the crowd up by getting them to repeat after her, “I…Love…You.” Maybe it was the rain that took down the crowd’s spirits, or maybe it was a language barrier, or maybe, just maybe the majority of the exhibition go-ers thought the same as my friends did…that her Onochord was a crock of bull. I believe that if it were any other lesser known artist besides Ono, they would never be able to garner the same amount of publicity for this event as she did. Her popularity and famous image bolstered this exhibition to the top of the “Must Sees” on City Weekend and SmartShanghai.com, not the message she was trying to convey. For her to use her image to get her message across is in no means wrong—many people do it for far worse reasons. However, because of her ability to reach the masses, I felt she should have put actions behind her words.

The gallery itself was, like my classmates have said, a great disappointment. After waiting in the rain for 30 minutes, fighting for an admission flashlight for 10 minutes, and being shoved and stepped on repeatedly, I definitely had high expectations. I have been to the KE exhibition space before and I know how big that place is… it’s held way more than the five things she had on display. Like her “I Love You” Onochord, I felt that her works were very idealistic and nothing really jumped up and wowed me. Granted, I felt that the positioning of the coffin boxes outside the exhibit were more exciting than anything I saw in there, because they integrated the outside surrounding areas.

So although I was thoroughly disappointed with “Fly,” partially due to the hour wait in the rain, the celebrity fiend inside me was still excited to see a celebrity…no matter how shoddy her message.

Yoko Ono in Shanghai: I Love You, Not!

I will not lie, at first I was quite excited to see Yoko-ono's work. I have never seen Yoko-Ono's previous works, and to be honest, the only reason why I know of her is because of her relationship with the late John Lennon. Overall, I was not impressed by her work at all. I was quite disappointed. At first it started out with me, Hana, Val, and Kevin, waiting outside for 45 minutes in the gloomy weather. We watched her video replay itself 3-4 times before anything had actually happened. My first impression of Yoko: creepy. She is a creepy looking lady. Her voice is of peace and harmony but how shes says it seems so generic and even a little fake. Daphne explained the coffins outside represented those who have suffered thoughout the world, coffins are specific for each country, differentiated by the plant. This was nice of her but at the same time so generic. Of course the world suffers, its terrible but I felt the art really had no meaning.

I did not like the "I love you" part. It actually angered me. Her video replayed her movement of "I love you" through the use of flashing lights. Apparently, her idea has been going as early as 2004, which disappoints me because this has already lasted that long. I thought her idea was completely unoriginal. Yes, there is suffering. Yes, people die unfairly. Yes, using light can be used as a universal language so everyone can understand. But I feel that this has no substance what so ever. It seemed more like brainwashing than anything. To me, "I love you" are three very sensitive words to me, not to be used so freely. I found it ridiculous. Yoko-Ono says I love you but to who, for what. The more it was said by her, the more it seemed to lose meaning for me. Superficial. I will admit, it seemed nice of her to create one gigantic prism light in memory of John Lennon, in, I believe but forgive me if its incorrect, Poland. Touching sure. But at the same time, I feel that she is just using the memory of John Lennon to bring attention to her "art." She could have expressed her care not so publicly. She probably meant to stir people's emotion and bring recognition of love, but it just all seems to fake. She just uses her relationship with John Lennon and the power she has accumulated because of it to boast herself and her not-so-genius, not-so-new, not-so-creative ideas.

After watched the video for the forth time, Yoko appears on the rooftop, holding out the peace sign for a long while so she can have her photo-op. Then she repeats her message of "I love you" though you can barely hear her because of her tiny voice. After her brief appearance, she disappears and the exhibit begins. I walk in and what it consisted of was mainly empty space. Her art seemed to be less visual and more reading. Overall, I was disappointed. I see where she is getting at but it just doesn't seem deep at all. It seems that she is trying to change the world, peace and harmony, love, recognizing the mother who brought you to this world...it just all seems so superficial. Perhaps I am being too judgmental. Perhaps I had irrational high expectations. It just didn't seem deep enough for me. It did not have substance in my eyes.

Yoko Ono in Shanghai: Oh No, Yoko

Yoko Ono is certainly in a unique position. Ono is, of course, more famous for her love interests than her art. It's difficult for one to divorce her art from her famous marriage to John Lennon and their decade-long campaign for peace and pacifism in the 1960s and 1970s. Unique to her too is the sense of antagonism that so many feel towards her: she is, to many, the reason the Beatles broke up. Her name has become synonymous with disharmony between friends, a timeless reminder of the danger that relationships can pose to friendships.

Ono has not, however, shied away from her association with Lennon. As hundreds lined up outside the Ke Art Center to see her show "Fly" in Shanghai, a giant screen hanging against the building alternated between slideshows and videos of Ono. At one point, the video for Lennon's "Imagine" came on the screen, perhaps Lennon's most immortal songs, concluding with a written statement by Ono in which she pledges her eternal love for Lennon.

Before the doors opened, Ono stood on the roof of the center, mumbling into a poorly-balanced microphone, shining a flashlight into the crowd. Visitors were given small flashlights, and Ono declared that all should go to loved ones and strangers alike, flash light at them and declare "I love you." Ono tried tirelessly to get the crowd to chant "I love you" to each other and to her, but the crowd was disinterested and unenthusiastic. It was raining, and clearly everyone was ready to get inside to see the exhibition.

Once the doors opened, the crowd began to stampede through the double doors, creating a scary situation that, unfortunately, is not unfamiliar to crowds in Shanghai. Once I made it inside the gallery, the exhibit was, for a lack of better words, underwhelming. I suppose I set my expectations especially high because of my respect and admiration for Lennon, and, being unfamiliar with Ono's art, figured that somehow there would be a connection for me with this art. After all, this was an artist Lennon loved, and I would certainly trust his taste.

Ono's show, however, was seemingly undeveloped and hastily put together. Aside from two large posters, one of a breast and the other of a vagina, Ono's art was rather interactive, grounding itself in words and language rather than visual imagery. Visitors were encouraged on one wall to write a note of love to their mothers. The piece was me was unoriginal and uninspiring.

Ono broke up the gallery space with a makeshift stairway of sorts, a plywood mountain that visitors needed to transverse to see the rest of the show. The rest of the show consisted of a room on which Ono had written sentences and phrases on a wall in black pen, phrases that seemed intentionally ambiguous and minimal. Visitors snaked around the room, dynamically experiencing the space, but there seemed to be a lack of focus or clear message. Whereas the first part of the show seemed focus on love and maternity, this part of the show focused on more abstract concepts without a distinct thesis. Perhaps it was over my head.

I cannot say I was wholly impressed with Ono's exhibit overall. I can appreciate Ono's messages, and her undying love for Lennon, twenty-eight years after his murder, but I cannot say that I feel a connection to her art. It is, for me, far too vague.

Yoko Ono in Shanghai: I LOVE YOU. You Sure About That?

Yoko Ono: FLY Exhibition was...a disaster.
I personally did not know much about Yoko Ono, except the fact that she had been married
to John Lennon and they had led the international peace movement together.
But knowing nothing of her artist life, I had high expectations and was very excited to see her works, in hopes of understanding why she was so famous.
I have to say, even before I saw her works, I was frustrated by the exhibition's organization even before I got there. There was massive confusion of whether it was an invitation-only exhibition, whether the brochure looking thing we got was an actual invitation, or whether everyone can go the opening night. When I called to verify, the employee told me that there was this whole application process in which you have to fill out your nationality, the company you work for, your major (which also makes me wonder, why do they need to know your nationality anyhow?). The funny thing was she seemed to also be confused about this too, not satisfying any of my questions. So when I went to the site, the application process gave off the idea that if you're lucky, you will be selected to go.
But none of this mattered at the end, because first you had to worry about even getting to the front of the door of the exhibition without getting trampled on by the crowd. Oh, but none of this mattered yet, because we were trying to figure out why people were standing around and not in line, only to find out through guessing that there is a video that we must see first, then her speech, then you can go in to the actual exhibition. When we tried to find the organizer or any employee to figure out what was going on, we couldn't find one.
Her "I love you" flashlight code was a whole different story. First, I was fascinated by it. Seeing the video of thousands of people flashing "I LOVE YOU" codes at once, and creating this widespread effect with such a simple idea showed me the immense power of her influence and everyone saying "I LOVE YOU" to each other did at first make me feel all fuzzy and warm inside. But the more I thought about it, the more problems I saw. I felt that she was all about trying to bring universal peace to a world full of hatred and negativity. But, to me, she did a lot of "talk the talk" but not much of the "walk the walk." Everything was so idealistic, and flashing lights at each other isn't exactly going to bring universal peace, if you know what I mean. Just imagine people walking around with flashlights on a daily basis flashing these codes. That is a scary thought, first of all, and just because you flash these codes doesn't mean that the antagonists in our society are going to drop their guns, their hatred, their malice intentions and say, "You know what? I'm sorry. I love you too." Maybe I am being a harsh cynic, but...it was just way too idealistic for my taste.
Her speech, as well, was a disappointment. Being someone who is so famous and well known, I figured she would discuss reflective and profound messages that would really inspire me about her works as an artist, or the messages--maybe about world peace--that she would reflect through her artwork. I was also hoping she can talk a little bit about her work inside the actual exhibition. However, her making an appearance and saying "I love you. I love Shanghai" left me with one reaction: "HUH?"
The crowd itself was very artificial. This was the most crowded exhibition I have ever been to, anywhere. But I felt like a lot of them went for fun, not to appreciate or understand what she had to present. There she is saying that there is so much hatred in this world, and that people should love each other, and while the crowd was flashing these lights that stand for "I LOVE YOU," they were acting in complete hypocrisy--pushing and shoving, pulling people's hairs, causing people fall but not bothering to pick them back up. I LOVE YOU? It certainly did not seem so. I felt like there was also a lot of ignorance in the crowd, people didn't really care about her art work or what she had to say. Many seemed to just come because she was famous. One girl in the crowd completely stepped onto the coffin & tree installation, impatiently trying to get through the crowd, and ended up cracking it, which also made me go, "uh...WHAT"
I did really like that specific installation. The meaning behind it was valuable, if I understood it right. The wooden things were coffins that were meant to commemorate the lives of everyone who died as a result of war, violence in the world, etc. Another interesting characteristic of this installation is that if you notice carefully, they are all of different sizes representing children, bigger people, smaller people. The trees that are placed where the heads lay was also interesting. I read somewhere that these growing trees symbolize the life represented in their faces before they died. And maybe, it could also show how they will still live on to represent the need for peace. The concept of the trees being local to the place it is exhibited is very interesting as well. I really liked that idea.
Overall, I was frustrated and annoyed at how poorly organized Yoko Ono's exhibition was from start to end. Many of my friends left before they can even get into the exhibition because they were sick of how rude the crowd was pushing and shoving, ironically while holding the "I LOVE YOU" flashlights representing exactly the opposite. Letting these belligerent people in little by little in a place where there wasn't even a line was also a bad idea. Overall, there was a lot of confusion, frustration, and a lot of.. hatred. not.. LOVE.

Yoko Ono in Shanghai: war is over? not yet

Yoko Ono’s first solo show in Shanghai, “FLY” had its opening this past weekend. Many people believed they were part of an exclusive group who signed up for, or received invitations to, this opening event. To the surprise of hundreds, this was no small gathering. I arrived at the Ke Center to find a U shaped courtyard completely packed with anticipation filled visitors. Yoko Ono herself was on top of the building at the center of the U, reciting “I Love You” to corresponding blinks from a flash-light. One she retreated into the building the crowd was left waiting to be let in. At this point I had managed to work my way into the crowd to the doors of the gallery. Once people started to be let in –just a few at a time- the crowd turned into a crazy, angry mob, all pushing like crazy to try to get closer and to get in. I saw a mother holding an infant get totally knocked over, and others fall only to be trampled over. This to go see an exhibit of work done by a woman professing messages of love and peace but a moment earlier. I was part of a few lucky individuals to get into the space before EVERYONE was let in (I’m convinced that they must have stormed the doors!). Inside there was a collection of works representing different aspects and times of Yoko Ono’s career. It was interesting to see what the show would be like considering the conceptual and performance based nature of Ono’s work. In the end, the gallery was largely empty, with a few works displayed, recreated, or described. It is really hard to do justice to her art and performances without enacting them and without being in certain contexts. Messages were conveyed, and perhaps some picked up on to her ideas, but mostly people seemed to think it was a joke and pointless –they didn’t really see the meanings and intents. The largest element though was the people, the visitors. Typical of what I’ve seen in China, there was a huge crowd of people, pushing, unaware or ignoring those around them. Such disregard for humanity while fighting to see the work of a woman whose art has always been about humanity and connecting society with peace and love and understanding. While I am interested in Yoko Ono’s work and her philosophies, I don’t think they can really be represented in a static gallery setting, especially in China. Perhaps this exhibit shows how far the world still need to go to imagine all the people living life in peace.

Yoko Ono in Shanghai: Oh No! Yoko's "Fly" Hit or Miss?

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from the opening of Yoko Ono's retrospective entitled "Fly", as I am only vaguely familiar with her in the context of her marriage to John Lennon. When I arrived at the Ke Center for Contemporary Art, I was not exactly surprised to find a video projection of some of Ono's public appearances. In them, she often spoke of things like universal love, a love that transcends the romantic or the familiar in favor of universal love for humankind. Her rhetoric on the subject I suspect has changed little since her days in the spotlight as Lennon's pacifist wife (and subsequent widow), whose connection to her is clearly inextricable. Ono's exhibition opening, despite obvious efforts on the part of the Ke Center to do otherwise, attracted hundreds of fans and caused something that could only be described as completely chaotic. The whole event, whose organization once again revealed the novice of Chinese institutions in dealing with such situations, was ironically contradictory to Ono's own philosophy and her emphasis on peace and love. Hundreds of people pushed, prodded and shoved their way to the doors of the center, which was only exacerbated by the impending downpour. Many people left in frustration. The combination of the sardine like state imposed on guests as well as the complete lack of communication between crowd and gallery staff was worthy cause for premature departure. I couldn't find one (non-security) staff member to talk to while I waited outside in the rain for an alarmingly indefinite amount of time.

Once inside, however, I am sad to say that the exhibition was not worth the struggle. The space was deceivingly large considering the amount of work that comprised the "retrospective". As far as I could tell, the work consisted of about 5 actual pieces, including the following. Most "shocking" (i.e. provocative and popular with snap-happy Chinese and tourists) were two pairs of large photographs, one a close-up of a woman's nipple, the other of a vagina. On all four photographs the words "My Mommy Is Beautiful" are inscribed.

The next snippets of work mainly consisted of Ono's scrawlings, often on the white walls of the center. To the right of the photographs was a framed poem in appreciation of motherhood. The poem lauds mothers from the perspective of the universal "child" (i.e. everyone on the earth has a mother). Not far from the poem was a large cocoon, once again evoking themes of maternity and childhood. Here the idea of "flying" was blatantly introduced; Ono compares people to butterflies and presumably, cocoons to our mothers. This symbolism was a bit heavy-handed for my taste, or maybe I simply wasn't too interested in the ideas she was expressing. I am also not so sure how deeply it resonated with the local audience, who seemed fascinated by the presence of a giant empty cocoon, but less than contemplative about its message.

There was also a room of unremarkable scrawlings and sketches, most notably a sketch of a 2000 foot long circle (which was about the size of a dumpling). I get what she was trying to do, but I wasn't awfully impressed with it. Her minimalist approach lent the works an air of laziness and incompletion, and ultimately detracted from her message. I will be interested to see how the exhibtion will be recieved.

Yoko Ono is a bad woman?

I honestly don't mind standing in the rain, or waiting in line. So although this was by far the most frustrating aspect for most visitors of the Yoko Ono Exhibition at the KE art center, it was not a problem for me. I'm not going censor myself (maybe a little), this exhibition was stupid, that ultimately was my problem. Now, after making such an absolute and judgmental comment I will to give it some justification.

Arriving at the KE art center the entire staging ground is packed with people. Everyone and their mother is here, including most of the NYU program. On the entrance of the main building is a large screen where a video on Yoko Ono's exhibition is playing. It plays once, twice, three times. Still no Yoko Onol, and no moving within the crowd. Some of the NYU start to become antsy. She shows up, and when she does the whole event is anti-climatic. You can't hear her voice, and the only thing I can barely pick up is I love Shanghai, and flash, flash flash, flash flash flash, which means I love you. I learned that from the video already, I chose not to flash her back in annoyance, and I think many of the students did the same. And then came the event we waited for, the doors opened, to only let a handful of people in. Then it rained, and we waited in the rain. As one by one people left, I stood waiting, honestly curious for what was inside. It was a full hour before I got in the building, and then 5 minutes and I was done with the exhibition. Here are my thoughts.

As so I can refrain from writing another purely negative review, I would like to focus on the positives of the show first. Production values were high, the KE art center was well refitted for the show, and all attendees were given small LED lights. I can confirm that my works a week later. The wooden coffins with plants on the outside were also a nice asthetic touch. And of course for what it's worth, Yoko Ono was there in person.

What was disappointing about the show was that it didn't seem like art. There were several posters plastered on a wall, a tree with wish tags hanging on them, and white room with minimal writing and lines on the walls. I can understand that sometimes art is different, that there may be some minimalistic ideal to it, but what Yoko Ono had to show here was not thought out, cheap, and uninspiring. I felt like drawing all over the walls just to put something there. Not to mention the theme, love. When tackling such an overplayed issue, I feel that it is important to carefully do it justice. Yoko Ono takes a legitimately interesting topic, and turns it on its ugly head. There is no semblance of thought in this exhibition. One flash, two flash, three flash is supposed to mean I love you. She takes this already absurd idea, and tries to turn it into the next phenomenon. I am not one to comply, and although I would like to spread "love" I would like to do it in a sincere and legitimate way. The self involved video segment, the ridiculous and unorderly appearance of Yoko Ono, the bare bones exhibition, and even the wait outside in the rain, all add to my disappointment to this show. Next time I will properly lower my expectations for a Yoko Ono show.

In all honestly, and reading what I have just written, this is one the most negative things I have wrote. I think it is because what she has done, does not to be symbolize legitimate art. She has taken an honest idea, and made it shallow beyond belief. I heard someone say in the crowd, why is this women making I love you so complicated? Instead of flashing some six times why not say three words, I love you? But all that aside, in this journey define art, and what art entails, this I can honestly say is not art.

calendar November

So here is a calendar of shows for your weekly blog entries for the month of November.
 
//Under Lu Xun Banner (email afore sent)

//Yoko Ono (Nov 22) (email afore sent)

// October 31 ― December 5, 2008
INVOLVED
Artist: Knut Asdam, Stefan Brüggemann, Shi Yong, Zhang Enli
ShanghART H-Space
Opening Reception: October 11, 16:00
50 Moganshan Rd., Bldg 18 Shanghai
www.shanghartgallery.com
More Info: 86 21-6276 2818


//November 1 ― November 20, 2008
Afterlife
Artist: Xie Caomin
Gallery 55
Opening Reception: November 1, 14:00
Bldg.4A, 50 MoGanShan Rd. Shanghai
www.gallery55s.com
More Info: 86 21 6266 4108

// November 1 ― December 18, 2008
EXQUISITE CORPSE: China Surreal
Artists：BAI Yiluo, DONG Wensheng, FANG Er, HAN Lei etc.
m97 Gallery
Opening Reception: November 1，17:00
97 Moganshan Road 2F Shanghai , China
www.m97gallery.com
More Info: 86 21 6266 1597

//October 18 ― November 10, 2008
Urbanized Landscape
Curator: Richard Castelli
Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art
Opening wine: October 18, 17:30
No. 28, Lane 199, Fangdian Road, Shanghai, China
www.shearts.org
More Info: 86 21 5033 9803


// October 18 ― November 26, 2008
Wonderland
Artist: Lee Lee Nan, Hiraki Sawa
Bund 18 Creative Center
Opening Reception: October 18, 18:00
4F,18 Zhongshan East Road(E1), Shanghai
www.bund18.com
More Info: 86 21 6323 7066

// September 9 ― December 9, 2008
We are the world
Artist: Qiu Anxiong
Contrasts Gallery
Opening Reception: September 9, 19:00
2Floor, 39 Building, 702 Lingshi Road,Shanghai
www.contrastsgallery.com
More Info: 86 21 6323 1989


// September 7 ― November 6, 2008
Tu Long JI
Artist: Yang Yongliang
FQ Projects
Opening Reception: September 6, 16:00
No.76, Lane 927, Huaihai Rd., Shanghai
www.fqprojects.com
More Info: 86 21 6466 2940

Yoko Ono in Shanghai

http://shanghaichase.blogspot.com/search/label/yoko%20ono%20in%20shanghai
Reviews are all here for Yoko Ono's first Chinese solo exhibition at Shanghai's Ke Center.