Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono (@yokoonoofficial) was born #onthisday in 1933 in Tokyo. She moved to New York in 1953, where she lives and works today. In the 1960s, she was part of the artist group Fluxus, where she became particularly well known for her performance and conceptual art. Some of her works include “Wish Trees”, an art installation series of small tree gardens around the world in which people are invited to write their personal wishes and tie them to a tree branch. Yoko has collected all the wishes – currently totaling over a million. They are stored in the “Imagine Peace” Tower, an outdoor work of art conceived by Ono in memory of John Lennon. It is composed of a tall, shimmering tower of lights situated in Reykjavík, Iceland. In Cut Piece—one of Ono’s early performance works—the artist sat alone on a stage, dressed in her best suit, with a pair of scissors in front of her. The audience had been instructed that they could take turns approaching her and use the scissors to cut off small pieces of her clothing. This work, which was first staged in 1964, examined the role the female body has played in art throughout the ages. In her installation, “Arising”, Ono exhibited submissions from women from all around the world, about “harm done to [them] for being a woman.” Testaments were written in their own language, next to a photograph only of their eyes. Her most recent work includes the MTA-commissioned mosaic at the Dakota-adjacent 72nd Street subway station. Ono is also known for her peace activism. She participated in the “Bed-Ins for Peace” with John Lennon at hotels in Amsterdam and Montreal, a two-week-long nonviolent protest against war. She also started the “War is over!” peace campaign with Lennon, in which huge posters and billboards were erected in 12 countries proclaiming “War is over! If you want it.” ☮️💜