Yoko Ono

Lennon called her "the most famous unknown artist in the world."

Known for her dada inspired 'Avant-garde' work in art, film and music, bringing feminism to the front of all these art forms.

In this video Yoko One herself talks about the ideas between her work cut piece
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-radio-and-tv-18959341

Ono's ideas of being part of the work is something that I was particularly attracted to and something which I hope to explore further, as well as letting people have free will in interact in a way in which they choose. Ono performed cut piece again after main years, she says this is because she believe the world is become extremely violence and there is a strong miss trust between people she wanted to break this down by inviting the audience to again cut pieces of her clothing away in the hope that we can truth each other. Ono admits to being scared and nervous about re-creating the piece however felt she should have no protection and hopefully this could inference the world to trust each other, but she says her self the second time doing cut piece was ineffective as there is still lots of violence in the world. Ono originally did this piece in 1964 which was a time a great revolution for women. The contraceptive pill was widely sold, this lead to women having more control. Sex became more socially acceptable outside the strict boundaries of traditional marriage. This also lead a lot more women to pursue higher education as they had a lot more control over their further. It  was also time of the Civil Rights Movement, this gave women a lot more rights than previously further empowering them.  I think Ono is strongly supporting the women's liberation in her work perticually this piece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBBvlJLYwlE

My first impressions of Cut Piece is that it seem to be extremely empowering with out being over whelming. It was a very bold thing that Ono did, I think her message is very clear this is why this piece is so effective. After hear Ono talk about her work and reading how it was critical reviewed I can see how Ono was wanting to reflects what was happening at the time, with out being too forceful and allowing people cut as much and as little and whatever they want which allows them to feel confitble to be part of the piece. I think Ono is also a leading figure in the forming of performance art as an art form and her bold and brave cut piece is a true example of this.

My responce to Cut Piece http://billiefm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/yoko-ono-responce.html

After looking at Ono's cut piece, I wanted to take my work into a direction when I am the start or course of the interaction. I chose to link this in with a project I was doing about my local area, Balham. I went in to Balham train station to observe the interaction in this space where people have time to talk as they wait, however there was not interaction between people at all. This could be due to them being there for a purpose however not making the most of this short time. I deiced to go up to people waiting on the platforms and ask them questions and ask to film this. I was shock how only one person wanted to talk to me and did not mind it being films and only one other person let me ask them the question. I think this show how closed off and defencive people in London have become. From the thing I did collect I create a short film.

http://imaginepeace.com/archives/2680

After further looking at Yoko Ono's work I tried to create another response aiming to create social interaction, however more focusing on me as a women, as Ono does. I decided to create a very simple white dress and sit wearing it surrounded in felt tips pens. I wanted to see if people interacted with me, drew on me and what they drew or wrote.

Another piece of Yoko Ono's work which I have been looking at is 'Wish Tree' (1996) Ono invites people to write their wishes down and tie them on to a branch of the tree, this is an on going piece currently on over a million wishes.

“As a child in Japan, I used to go to a temple and write out a wish on a piece of thin
paper and tie it around the branch of a tree. Trees in temple courtyards were always
filled with people’s wish knots, which looked like white flowers blossoming from afar.”
Yoko Ono: “All My Works Are A Form Of Wishing”.

Yoko Ono has used different kinds of trees at different exhibition venues, to fit the particular venue's nature.