Elise Hawthorne
Who would have thought a short film depicting bottoms in motion could be so entertaining. Film No. 4 (Bottoms), 1966-67, was cute, engaging and a hit with the two children who accompanied myself and a friend to Yoko Ono’s ‘War Is Over! (if you want it): Yoko Ono’ exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney. Yoko sure has a sense of humour and a playfulness that is very much in evidence in this thought provoking exhibition.
It seems Yoko likes to entice the viewer into becoming the participant – her ‘My Mommy Is Beautiful’ piece is thought provoking and very moving – it bought me to tears both when writing a message to my long departed mother and when reading the message my 12 year old son wrote about me.
‘Helmets – Pieces of Sky’, encourages us all to look skywards and envision a better future for humanity. We are asked to take a piece of a sky jigsaw puzzle from one of the helmets that is hung upside down from the ceiling with the hope of one day returning with others to build a beautiful new sky together.
Yoko’s ‘Wish Tree for Sydney’, inspires us all to dream for positive change. Inspired by the Shinto temple trees of her childhood, people are invited to write private messages of peace and hope, and to tie their wish to a branch of one of the lemon-scented eucalyptus saplings situated on the MCA Sculpture Terrace. Every wish counts according to Yoko and indeed one feels that it does.
‘Play It By Trust’, Yoko’s interactive chess installation, has customised the boards and chess pieces all white. As the game begins the pieces intermingle and competition becomes impossible. “Ideally”, Yoko has said, “this leads to a shared understanding of our mutual concerns and a new relationship based on empathy rather than opposition. Peace is then attained on a small scale”.
Love Is All You Need, Yoko x
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, till 23 February 2014
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