Yoko Ono is a Japanese American musician and
avant-garde artist. She was born in Tokyo in 1933 to a rich, noble family.
Until the start of the Second World War, her family traveled back and forth
between Japan due to her father’s job as a banker. Thanks to this experience,
she was exposed to not only different cultures and religions, but also to a
more liberal Western lifestyle. During her college life, her bohemian lifestyle
was not approved by her parents. In 1955, she dropped out of university and
moved to New York City in search of her own artistic style and the freedom to
work with diverse artists. However, Most of people know her because she is the
second wife of John Lennon and her influence to Beatles. In the early 1960s, Yoko
Ono has been someone of avant-garde art area. In 1964, for the first time she
performed her most famous performance art, Cut Piece. And in 1966, when she did
Cut Piece again in London, she met John Lennon. Since then, her art has been
known by more and more people.
Since she dropped out of school, she didn’t
get formal art education. She concentrates in music and performance art. Cut
Piece, as her most famous performance art, people were invited to the stage to
cut her clothe off until she is naked. And she developed her own genre of music
which combined Avant-garde, rock, pop, electronica, Shibuya-kei, and Fluxus.
After married to John Lennon, they collaborated
on art, film and musical projects, and became famous for their series of
"conceptual events" to promote world peace, including the
"bed-in" held in an Amsterdam hotel room during their honeymoon in
1969. Yoko Ono focused on world peace all the time. Also, she thought that what
limits art is the genre, and she said that she doesn’t belong to any genres. It
was the genres, movements and organizations limit the modern art.
Yoko Ono is the witch of art. She is still
active these days and fighting for world peace through her art work. Unfortunately,
her art couldn’t be accepted by most of us these days. We can find video of her
singing online but most comments are talking about they don’t understand the
art.
Her Cut Piece video of 1965:
Video of her singing Fireworks by Katy Perry
(2012):
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