Cambridge Edition August 2019

YOKO ONO

IMAGES Yoko Ono: Sky Pieces is running at the Heong Gallery until October 2019

“The problem is not how to become different or unique, but how to share an experience”

With a symposium in October at the Heong Gallery, a walking tour of the works, screenings of Fly (1970) and Apotheosis (1970) , both co-directed with John Lennon, text posters throughout the city, plus a performance of Cut Piece (1969) at the Ruskin Gallery and another exhibition at the Alison Richard Building – there are happenings and installations for everyone, with the audience at the heart throughout. “All the works in the exhibition are participatory and invite you to contemplate

the shadow of John Lennon,” explains curator Gabriella Daris. “It was Ono who was invited to perform at the concert of experimental music in Cambridge in 1969, and Lennon joined in at the last minute. It was her gig, really.” Yoko Ono’s raw, powerful voice, with Lennon’s guitar, showed the influence of Fluxus, of which she was a major pioneer – an art movement that valued creative process as much as final product. The track Cambridge 1969 was part of the couple’s first album together, This is Unfinished Music . “It is just us expressing ourselves like a child does, you know... What we’re saying is make your own music,’ John Lennon explained about their work.

plaque, gifted by G, commemorates the couple’s first live performance together, at a jazz concert on 2 March in 1969. Yoko Ono had originally been invited to perform, with Lennon appearing as ‘her band’ – who played throughout, with his back to what he described as the ‘weird, artsy fartsy’ audience – whom he also rated as ‘totally solid’. An audio recording of the avant garde performance is installed at Lady Mitchell Hall until December 2019. “I wanted to contribute to the social history of the city of Cambridge by shedding light on something previously buried, but to also highlight the important role that music has played in Yoko Ono’s career as an artist, usually overlooked under

an incomprehensible scope of time. You may not find solid answers but previously unconsidered questions might be revealed in the form of mental somersaults,” Daris adds.

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