‘Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind’ at Tate Modern is an exhibition that wants you to get involved, fittingly for an artist and activist who has long considered participation to be integral to her art. It’s the thread that runs throughout the show, her largest UK retrospective, tracing her multidisciplinary work from the 1950s to date in an immersive experience that’s faithful to the instructive core at the heart of Ono’s work.
Yoko Ono, Freedom 1970. Courtesy the artist
A chronological narrative takes us from Ono’s childhood in Tokyo, Japan, to her evacuation to the countryside during the Second World War and subsequent move to New York, where she conceived her first works. The instructive elements in her art are clear early on, in pieces that encouraged viewers to light a match. The idea is explored in three parts here – in the instruction itself, the performance, and the film.
Yoko Ono at Tate Modern
Yoko Ono, FLY, 1970-71. Courtesy the artist
This sets the pattern for the rest of the exhibition. Through her art, Ono instructs us – play chess with all-white pieces until you can’t remember where your pieces are, remove your shoes and carry out activities inside a black bag, hammer a nail, add colour to a white boat in a reflection of displacement, write a message to your mother – and as visitors to the exhibition, we can faithfully obey.
Yoko Ono, Add Colour (Refugee Boat), 2016, at MAXXI Foundation. Photo © Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini
The exhibition lingers on Ono’s five-year stay in London, from 1966, as a turning point in the radical nature of her work, tracing the connections she made with artists, writers and musicians, including husband and collaborator John Lennon. A multimedia approach invites us in, from 1969 film Bed Peace, showing the couple’s second ‘bed-in’ event, and the resulting media scourge that ensued.
Yoko Ono, Apple, 1966, from ‘Yoko Ono: One Woman Show’, 1960-1971, MoMA, NYC, 2015. Photo © Thomas Griesel
The exhibition takes its name from Ono’s concerts and events in London and Liverpool in 1966 and 1967, where ‘silent’ music reigned, present only in listeners’ minds. Here, music is everywhere, including anthems Sisters O Sisters (1972), Woman Power (1973) and Rising (1995), supporting Ono’s work for violence against women in a multisensory mash-up.
‘Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind’ at Tate Modern, London, 15 Feb – 1 September 2024
Yoko Ono with Glass Hammer, 1967 from ‘HALF-A-WIND SHOW’, Lisson Gallery, London, 1967. Photo © Clay Perry
-
Design Miami announces Dubai collectible design platform in collaboration with AlserkalThe new platform will honour the region’s cultural heritage while highlighting its spirit of innovation
-
Four new keyboards are fresh and functional desktop companionsMechanical keyboards are all the rage, bringing with them new ways of personalising your desktop. We’ve found four devices that hark back to the early days of computing
-
RBW EV brings a much-loved classic sports car aesthetic into the modern eraThe RBW Roadster and GT hark back to a golden age of sports car design. Under the skin, these British-built machines feature bespoke all-electric running gear
-
Each mundane object tells a story at Pace’s tribute to the everydayIn a group exhibition, ‘Monument to the Unimportant’, artists give the seemingly insignificant – from discarded clothes to weeds in cracks – a longer look
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekThis week, the Wallpaper* team had its finger on the pulse of architecture, interiors and fashion – while also scooping the latest on the Radiohead reunion and London’s buzziest pizza
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt’s been a week of escapism: daydreams of Ghana sparked by lively local projects, glimpses of Tokyo on nostalgic film rolls, and a charming foray into the heart of Christmas as the festive season kicks off in earnest
-
Wes Anderson at the Design Museum celebrates an obsessive attention to detail‘Wes Anderson: The Archives’ pays tribute to the American film director’s career – expect props and puppets aplenty in this comprehensive London retrospective
-
Meet Eva Helene Pade, the emerging artist redefining figurative paintingPade’s dreamlike figures in a crowd are currently on show at Thaddaeus Ropac London; she tells us about her need ‘to capture movements especially’
-
David Shrigley is quite literally asking for money for old rope (£1 million, to be precise)The Turner Prize-nominated artist has filled a London gallery with ten tonnes of discarded rope, priced at £1 million, slyly questioning the arbitrariness of artistic value
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekThe rain is falling, the nights are closing in, and it’s still a bit too early to get excited for Christmas, but this week, the Wallpaper* team brought warmth to the gloom with cosy interiors, good books, and a Hebridean dram
-
A former leprosarium with a traumatic past makes a haunting backdrop for Jaime Welsh's photographsIn 'Convalescent,' an exhibition at Ginny on Frederick in London, Jaime Welsh is drawn to the shores of Lake Geneva and the troubled history of Villa Karma
