Yoko Ono (born in February 18, 1933) is a Japanese American musician and artist. Ono is known as a famous conceptual and performance artist. At the age of 18, Ono and family moved to New York where she developed her interest in art (Huey, 2011). In 1960s, Ono was one of the first avant-garde artists who explored the ideas-based work dealing with issues of participation, communication, philosophy, and sexual politics (Pareles, 2010). At the same time, Ono was a member of Fluxus founded by George Maciunas who was a friend of Ono. However, she did not join the Fluxus group seriously because she wanted to be an independent artist.

Cut Piece, 1964 Painting to Hammer a Nail, 1966

Ono's arts often demand the viewers’ participation or challenge the viewers to find the meaning of her arts (Sayle, 2000).“Cut Piece” was one of Ono’s famous performance art that greatly impacted the society at that period of time. The first performance was in 1964 at the Sogetsu Art Center in Tokyo.In “Cut Piece”, Ono kneeled on the floor and sat still in a draped garment.The audience was invited to come to the stage and cut off pieces of her clothing until she was almost naked.The audiences were at shocked because of Ono’s idea. Ono gave all the control power of her performance art to the audience members and use her body as a real object instead of a material object.“Cut Piece” created big opportunities to outward the message from the internal suffering and lonelinessof many people who were experiencing them but didn’t speak up. It reminds us about the truth hidden underneath that we don’t often see because of all the materials that we try to use to cover or hide it.

Another of Ono’s favorite arts is the “Painting to Hammer a Nail” which was finished in 1966.The art challenges the viewers to take action prior understanding its meaning (Sayle, 2000). Similar to “Cut Piece,” the spectators can hammer a nail into a canvas anywhere or anyway they want to. By doing so, each of the spectators become a part of the artwork. The spectators are considered as artists because of their participation in the process of creating art. “Painting to Hammer a Nail” can’t be understood as an abstraction but only by real activities. When we raise the hammer to drive the nail, we are forcibly hitting it. The nail has to bear the force involuntarily. This art may represent the social powers that overcome the human freedom.

Ono married for two times at the early age however they were ended soon. John Lennon is her last husband who is a singer-songwriter and one of the founding members of The Beatles. Ono and Lennon had several successful works together. Following Lennon's death, Ono currently continuesto record albums, perform concert tours, and composemusic (Huey, 2011).

Reference:

Jon Pareles. (2010, February 17). Amid all that experience, innocence.The New York Times, p.1-3.

Murray Sayle. (2000). The importance of Yoko Ono. JPRI Occasional Paper, (18), 2.

Steve Huey. (2011). Yoko ono. Retrieved from