I was lucky enough to get to the private view of Music of the Mind, Yoko Ono‘s retrospective at Tate Modern. and was able to take a few photos.
I’ve experienced some of her work in the past, most recently her interactive installation, MEND PIECE at the Whitechapel Gallery back in 2021.
It was interesting this time to see earlier work, including a series of word paintings from 1961. Here’s one below.
There was often a touch of whimsy: A Work to be Stepped On was studiously avoided by everyone I saw that evening.
Helmets/Pieces of Sky from 2001 has upturned Nazi helmets filled with jigsaw pieces of the sky.
The request from Ono is that no matter what our beliefs we are all united under one sky. The pieces, when put together, form a complete jigsaw of the sky. This is for her “a hopeful symbol of limitless imagination”, something she experienced as a child, lying on her back watching planes flying overhead to bomb Tokyo during the Second World War.
A Box of Smile (header image) was made in 1967 in response to the Vietnam War. Ono invited people to open the box, lined with a mirror, and smile at their reflection. She wanted to make a film of smiles to humanise all victims of violence. They are not just numbers, but people, something too easy to forget.