Moving, being, and seeing in Yoko Ono’s exhibition.
At Tate Modern until September 1, 2024
by Carron Little
Yoko Ono, Music of the Mind exhibition, photo credit Carron Little
As one enters a group of three wishing trees at the entrance to the exhibition Music of the Mind by Yoko Ono one is greeted by a phone message from Yoko herself. It is a brief message in this transitional dark space between the outside world and entering the creative space of Yoko Ono. As the title in the exhibition makes a reference to music – the curatorial tempo is carefully created as one moves from one space to the next experiencing notions of being, seeing, and connecting are equally interwoven into this experiential exhibition if you are open to it.
Wishing Trees
by Yoko Ono
Music of the Mind exhibition
TATE MODERN
This room moves at the same speed as the clouds.
by Yoko Ono
Music of the Mind exhibition
TATE MODERN
The first room engages one in the slowness of time as we witness in close up 2000 frames per second compressed into 25 frames depicting the action of lighting a match. Watching the flame of light transform into smoke. Yoko first performed this simple everyday action in 1955 and we see documentation of this at Sogetsu Art Center, Tokyo on 24 May, 1962. Match sets the tempo for the audience as they move through the space of this exhibition that feels circular as one moves from the light to the clouds. The next room holds a drip of water on a cloth that fades and is reenacted by a Tate invigilator. The seminal work of Grapefruit – a series of instructions Yoko created over a ten-year period. Each instruction is carefully typed on a typewriter and written to different people. Grapefruit was first published in 1963 and the first documentation of this is in catalog is dated 1953. The postcards line the wall like a horizon line at eye level and people roll around each other reading each one. One becomes immersed in the poetic simplicity of these works that are so inspiring. In the act of reading it sparks creativity.
Grapefruit, 1953 - 1963 by Yoko Ono, Music of the Mind
Each room is a dynamic display of archival material consisting of prompts, scripts, audio, video, and film installation and photographs. In the third exhibition space the public is introduced to an experiential performance artwork called Black Bag. I couldn’t do this on my first visit, so I decided to return to the exhibition to experience this work. As I stepped into the black bag, I was expecting it to be super dark like a black out space but was surprised when it was very transparent. As I moved I could see and observe the public moving through the exhibition around me. There was a white dance floor on the ground underneath one’s feet and again their were simple instructions on the wall to follow that were open-ended. I entered the black bag and tried to remain in stillness for a while so I could center myself in the moment. This proved to be quite hard in this space with the flow of people moving around and being detached from people existing in the blackness of the bag with no eye contact. Slowly, slowly I started to gain my sense of presence within the space, through various moves in the bag. This experience in reflection makes me think more deeply about this concept Peace is Power and the notion of how we exist in the world. To experience being in the bag is an important invitation to expand knowingness and I highly recommend you try it.
Tate Invigilators observing a drip of water fade
by Yoko Ono
Music of the Mind exhibition
TATE MODERN
Opposite the Black Bag there were three headphones to listen to various sound works. I was drawn to the work Aria that was 22minutes in duration and was willing to listen for that long as I observed people move in the Black Bag. It was interesting to observe how quickly people moved. There was little stillness. The couple who entered before me announced they had just got engaged so they got into a duo black bag. This mutual sense of touch in the black bag would have been a whole other layer of experience and it was beautiful the form when the couple hugged. It would be amazing if the Tate hired a dancer to do this with the public as it would engage people in a whole other layer of the experience related to touch that is an important aspect of the exhibition.
Black Bag
by Yoko Ono
Music of the Mind exhibition
TATE MODERN
The next space engaged the viewer again in drawing your shadow. This is one of several works in the exhibition that invite the public to create collectively. There were also three t.v.s installed where Yoko had collaborated with a animation artist in Japan to create the sound. These were very quirky, and I personally loved the quality of the drawings and loved how Yoko embodied the characters through sound.
Shadow
by Yoko Ono
Music of the Mind exhibition
TATE MODERN
After drawing one’s shadow and reading more prompts one enters a vast exhibition space with installations, video spaces, listening spaces and the Hammer a Nail painting. As I walked into this space I noticed a woman sat on her own at a white table with a white chess set. There were five of these chess sets scattered in an area of the vast space. The empty chair was calling to me so I asked the woman if I could play chess with her. We introduced ourselves and had become partially familiar with each other as we had shifted through the earlier exhibition spaces in a similar tempo, knocking, touching, and smiling. This was a deeper moment of connection where we learnt that we were both artists and Jennifer Alford was living and working as a ceramic artist just outside of Dundee, Scotland. I was on my way up to Scotland a few days later. We were both feeling sleep deprived as she had been on the road since 4am that day traveling down from Dundee, Scotland and I had just traveled directly to the exhibit from Chicago catching a plane the previous day and arriving at Heathrow before traveling direct to the Tate to meet my friend and see the Yoko Ono show.
This unexpected encounter at one of Yoko Ono’s chess games has continued to inspire our connection and I was lucky enough to visit Jennifer at her ceramic studio outside of Dundee eight days later after our first meeting. During this meeting we have discovered so many confluences it has been very special. This special connection was facilitated by Yoko Ono in the space and context of the exhibition and this very simple invitation of inviting random members of the public to connect and play a game of chess. Being, seeing, and connecting (touching) are the three tenets of this exhibition.
Jennifer Alford with Carron Little at a Yoko Ono chess set, photo credit Unknown Tate Invigilator
On my return visit to the exhibition, I sat down and watched the “Peace In” that Yoko and John Lennon created as a durational seven-day performance. As I watched the video and listened to the interviewee being critical of their Bed In it was interesting to watch the observations both of Lennon and Ono. It made me reflect on the concept of Peace is Power = Silence is Power in how we communicate and listen to each other. To deeply listen is Yoko’s intent and through this deep listening we observe the incongruity of life itself.
by Yoko Ono, Music of the Mind exhibition
This large space also contained a sculptural installation of a domestic space where every single object and piece of furniture was cut in half. Half a chair, half a glass, half a shelving unit, a cup relating to the concept of half empty, half full. Behind this was another enclosed darkened space that housed the video of a Fly. A woman we presume to be Yoko lies naked as a fly walks over her naked breasts. Last year I experienced a similar sensation in Paul Couillard’s workshop in Flow as a fly landed on my face and massaged me in its stepping process that is like a dance. It became a special connection between Paul Couillard and I as he sat in a plaza creating a performance action for the same workshop and a fly landed on his face too. These moments of synchronity or special connection are living in an openness to the wider sense of being. These points of connection are mediated through the exhibition where collaborative works are shared and experienced. Outside the door of Fly there is a pane of glass with a bullet hole leading to a collection of works that share the clouds. One of these is a live stream of the clouds above the Tate Modern. There is a room with a boat that is completely covered by blue gell pens – drawings and graffiti that also includes the words “Free Palestine”. It is like walking into heaven – it feels like an ethereal space being in so much blue. This bright white space covered in blue that only reaches up as far as the height of people is again half empty/ half full. One is immersed in blue and the boat is a tragic memorial to the thousands of souls lost at sea searching for peace, for a place to call home.
The last few works in the exhibition embrace the sky, embrace our past and I was profoundly moved by the last work that invited us to send a wish to our mothers. The exhibition draws a circle of connection through being and seeing. Engaging with the archive of Yoko Ono’s work the exhibition carries us through a different way of knowing, being, and seeing. It gently invites us to be and to form new connections in the process if we are open to the possibilities of what that might bring naturally in the slow movement of life as it unfolds.
by Carron Little, May 2, 2024
