A blog dedicated to Yoko Ono.
By Cara (thecurvature)
See also:
Fuck Yeah John & Yoko
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Yoko Ono comes into her own in biography - Winnipeg Free Press →
Though she became famous as “the woman who broke up the Beatles,” Ono was an established avant-garde artist before she met Lennon. This intelligent — though occasionally overly adoring — authorized biography goes beyond the usual “ballad of John and Yoko.”
Authors Nell Beram and Carolyn Boriss-Krimsky look at Ono alone, revealing an original, independent woman who has broken a lot of ground as an artist, activist and feminist.
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Yoko Ono Confronts Ageism as She Nears 80th Birthday - Speakeasy - WSJ →
Yoko Ono, who won fame–and infamy–when she married Beatles founder John Lennon, will turn 80 in February, and she is confronting yet another prejudice.
“I had racism, I had sexism, now it’s ageism,” Ono said during a talk Monday night in New York. The talk was distributed on the Internet through Livestream.
For example, Ono said she enjoys wearing contemporary clothes and sometimes is criticized for doing so. “The minute I’m criticized, I feel like OK, I’m going to stick to it,” she said.
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'I'm a good arranger – according to me' | Music | The Observer →
Hi, Yoko! What do you have planned for Meltdown?
I’m very excited. I was in Meltdown before, invited by Patti Smith, but that’s very different from when you have to arrange things yourself. And I’m a good arranger – according to me. I would like to make it something refreshing, not about pursuing big names, more about a concept. A strong corner on women, feminism and the plight of women. I think all women are icons of feminism and we have responsibility for ourselves. But I’m happy to give one or two nights where I ask men to say something about themselves.….
You’re 80 next year – how will you celebrate?
I’m celebrating every day, in a way. It’s not very easy to be my age, but I’m not very concerned about age. After sexism and racism, which I fought, now there’s ageism – something more to fight about. I don’t do very much exercise, but I do like to walk. Food-wise, sometimes I’m very good and sometimes I’m very naughty – chocolate is what I like. Don’t be discouraged by society saying, “Oh, you’re going to be 40; that’s too bad.” We all carry our own age. I will put my feet up when I’m in a coffin, but until then I will do my best to have a full life.
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Yoko Ono is director of Meltdown 2013 at Southbank Centre, London, UK
Yoko Ono, who will celebrate her 80th birthday next year (on 18th Feb 2013) has today been announced as the director of Southbank Centre’s Meltdown Festival 2013.
In curating the festival in its 20th anniversary year, the iconic musician and artist follows in the footsteps of some of music’s biggest names including David Bowie, Patti Smith, Jarvis Cocker and Massive Attack.
Worldwide cultural icon Yoko Ono brings a lifetime of achievement in music, visual art and peace activism to Southbank Centre.
Yoko Ono’s Meltdown (14th – 23rd June 2013) will be led by the artist’s dedication to music across all genres, environmentalism, feminism and peace.
As well as featuring iconic names from the world of music and arts, Meltdown will at the same time be an opportunity to discover new and emerging talent from around the world.
For 20 years Meltdown has invited internationally renowned musicians to create once-in-a-lifetime experiences at Southbank Centre. Tasking artists to take over the 21-acre artistic site, Meltdown is renowned for unique events and artist-led programming, from Jeff Buckley’s final UK show, to the New York Dolls reuniting, and a rare live performance from Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser.
Yoko Ono is no stranger to the festival, having performed as part of both Patti Smith’s Meltdown in 2005 and Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown in 2009, and her return for the 2013 festival promises to have 10 days of not-to-be missed performances.
Yoko Ono said today: “I am deeply honoured to curate the world-famous Meltdown Festival. In doing so I am aware of the great tradition of experimentalism mixed with classicism that has made the festival such an enduring part of the British Arts landscape. I am now starting to approach names from all over the world, some of whom you will know and some who might be new to your world. Let the fun begin! ”.
To stay up to date with the latest #Meltdown 2013 news & ticket info:
Join the mailing list at http://meltdown.southbankcentre.co.uk
Twitter: Follow http://twitter.com/MeltdownFest
Facebook: Like https://www.facebook.com/southbankcentre
Source: imaginepeace.com
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![Yoko Ono Designs Men’s Line With Opening Ceremony
by David Lipke, Women’s Wear Daily
Yoko Ono has tried her hand at art, music, filmmaking and books — and now she’s bringing her idiosyncratic vision to men’s wear design. Ono has partnered with Opening Ceremony to create a limited-edition line of 18 styles that will launch at the retailer’s stores beginning next week.
The collection is based on a series of drawings titled “Fashions for Men” that Ono sketched as a gift for her late husband John Lennon on the occasion of their wedding in 1969. The artworks included playful renderings of tailored pieces, sportswear, footwear, headwear and other accessories, all of which have been compiled in a softcover book ($35) that will accompany the Opening Ceremony launch. The sketches are annotated with Ono’s instructions for colors, design flourishes and details.
“I was inspired to create ‘Fashions for Men’ amazed at how my man was looking so great. I felt it was a pity if we could not make clothes emphasizing his very sexy bod,” explained Ono of the original impetus for her designs 43 years ago, which are only now coming to fruition. “So, I made this whole series with love for his hot bod and gave it to him as a wedding present. You can imagine how he went wild and fell in love with me even more.”
The line will be available in Opening Ceremony’s U.S. stores in New York and Los Angeles on Tuesday, its London store on Nov. 30 and its Tokyo flagship on Dec. 9. Ono will host a book signing at the Opening Ceremony store on Howard Street in New York on Tuesday evening and another signing at the Tokyo store on Dec. 9.
Ono’s eccentricity and penchant for quirks are evident in the playful collection, which includes suit pants adorned with a hand cutout sewn over the crotch and a jersey pullover with eyelets cut out over the nipple region. A separate “lightbulb bra,” which is embedded with battery-operated light bulbs, can be worn underneath the pullover.
Jersey pants, jersey blazers and mesh tops are crafted with symmetric circular cutouts, recalling Ono’s seminal “Cut Piece” performance art stagings, in which audience members scissored off scraps of her clothing.
“I think she just fell in love with John’s body and wanted to show off all of the parts of his body that she loved,” said Humberto Leon, cofounder of Opening Ceremony. “There’s something so beautiful about that sentiment. And we’ve realized these designs in pretty actual terms of how she drew them.”
Each design in the Opening Ceremony line is produced in a run of 52 pieces, a number the numerology-prone Ono believes to be felicitous. However, there are larger runs of sweatshirts and posters decorated with Ono’s line drawings.
The hoodies will retail for $75 while a limited-edition eyelet tank top will retail for $150, a mesh pullover with circular cutouts for $145, wool suit trousers with the hand insignia for $335, a wool tailored blazer for $595 and the “lightbulb bra” for $250. There are two styles of boots, including a thigh-high design with an open toe and another with a conical incense holder at the toe, both retailing for $750.
Ono’s sketches from 1969 are childlike in their simplicity and humorous in their matter-of-fact approach to how men should dress. “Kneewear [for] when you have short pants or pants with special Yoko Ono knee holes on,” she noted of her knee pads decorated with a pair of eyes. Opening Ceremony produced those knee pads, as well as a jock strap, for the collection.
Other pieces, however, didn’t make it into production, such as underwear fashioned from a rigid mask. Another outfit, titled Dinnerwear, is comprised of just pants attached to a long lion’s tail in the rear. “Wear perfume on top,” advised Ono with the sketch, “also, dog leash optional and gloves.”
Leon and his business partner, Carol Lim — who are also creative directors of Paris-based Kenzo, a unit of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton — first met Ono when she attended the kick-off party for their Opening Ceremony flagship in Tokyo in 2009. “We really hit it off,” said Leon. “We loved the idea of sort of celebrating the holidays with Yoko with this collection.”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me3nb5Iuay1qzdedmo1_500.jpg)
Yoko Ono Designs Men’s Line With Opening Ceremony
by David Lipke, Women’s Wear Daily
Yoko Ono has tried her hand at art, music, filmmaking and books — and now she’s bringing her idiosyncratic vision to men’s wear design. Ono has partnered with Opening Ceremony to create a limited-edition line of 18 styles that will launch at the retailer’s stores beginning next week.
The collection is based on a series of drawings titled “Fashions for Men” that Ono sketched as a gift for her late husband John Lennon on the occasion of their wedding in 1969. The artworks included playful renderings of tailored pieces, sportswear, footwear, headwear and other accessories, all of which have been compiled in a softcover book ($35) that will accompany the Opening Ceremony launch. The sketches are annotated with Ono’s instructions for colors, design flourishes and details.
“I was inspired to create ‘Fashions for Men’ amazed at how my man was looking so great. I felt it was a pity if we could not make clothes emphasizing his very sexy bod,” explained Ono of the original impetus for her designs 43 years ago, which are only now coming to fruition. “So, I made this whole series with love for his hot bod and gave it to him as a wedding present. You can imagine how he went wild and fell in love with me even more.”
The line will be available in Opening Ceremony’s U.S. stores in New York and Los Angeles on Tuesday, its London store on Nov. 30 and its Tokyo flagship on Dec. 9. Ono will host a book signing at the Opening Ceremony store on Howard Street in New York on Tuesday evening and another signing at the Tokyo store on Dec. 9.
Ono’s eccentricity and penchant for quirks are evident in the playful collection, which includes suit pants adorned with a hand cutout sewn over the crotch and a jersey pullover with eyelets cut out over the nipple region. A separate “lightbulb bra,” which is embedded with battery-operated light bulbs, can be worn underneath the pullover.
Jersey pants, jersey blazers and mesh tops are crafted with symmetric circular cutouts, recalling Ono’s seminal “Cut Piece” performance art stagings, in which audience members scissored off scraps of her clothing.
“I think she just fell in love with John’s body and wanted to show off all of the parts of his body that she loved,” said Humberto Leon, cofounder of Opening Ceremony. “There’s something so beautiful about that sentiment. And we’ve realized these designs in pretty actual terms of how she drew them.”
Each design in the Opening Ceremony line is produced in a run of 52 pieces, a number the numerology-prone Ono believes to be felicitous. However, there are larger runs of sweatshirts and posters decorated with Ono’s line drawings.
The hoodies will retail for $75 while a limited-edition eyelet tank top will retail for $150, a mesh pullover with circular cutouts for $145, wool suit trousers with the hand insignia for $335, a wool tailored blazer for $595 and the “lightbulb bra” for $250. There are two styles of boots, including a thigh-high design with an open toe and another with a conical incense holder at the toe, both retailing for $750.
Ono’s sketches from 1969 are childlike in their simplicity and humorous in their matter-of-fact approach to how men should dress. “Kneewear [for] when you have short pants or pants with special Yoko Ono knee holes on,” she noted of her knee pads decorated with a pair of eyes. Opening Ceremony produced those knee pads, as well as a jock strap, for the collection.
Other pieces, however, didn’t make it into production, such as underwear fashioned from a rigid mask. Another outfit, titled Dinnerwear, is comprised of just pants attached to a long lion’s tail in the rear. “Wear perfume on top,” advised Ono with the sketch, “also, dog leash optional and gloves.”
Leon and his business partner, Carol Lim — who are also creative directors of Paris-based Kenzo, a unit of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton — first met Ono when she attended the kick-off party for their Opening Ceremony flagship in Tokyo in 2009. “We really hit it off,” said Leon. “We loved the idea of sort of celebrating the holidays with Yoko with this collection.”
Source: imaginepeace.com
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At 79, Yoko Ono is releasing a new album, Onomix, which features music that’s both danceable and political.
By Diane Anderson-Minshall, Advocate.com
Yoko Ono is a woman of few words and many ideas, a groundbreaking and under appreciated pop culture icon, and she seems to find new ways to make her music and outsider art relevant and inspirational decade after decade. For the past 10 years, Ono, now 79, has been meticulously reinventing select songs from her vast catalog for 21st-century dance floors, working with contemporary producers and artists (such as Basement Jaxx, Bimbo Jones, and Roberto Rodriguez) and bringing even more LGBT fans into her camp.
Her new album, ONOMIX, offers 30 of her most ambitious contemporary remixes, including the gay favorite “Everyman/Everywoman,” a reworking of “Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him,” which first appeared on her Double Fantasy album with late husband John Lennon. The new version offers lyrics supporting same-sex relationships and marriage equality, making it a fitting track to listen to on Election Day, when four states are voting on exactly that.
Source: imaginepeace.com
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GOOD Spends International Day of Peace With Yoko Ono →
Today marks the International Day of Peace. To celebrate, activist, artist, lover, and legend Yoko Ono has taken over Time Square, one of the most trafficked intersections in New York City to spread her message of world peace and nonviolent action. Ono’s films entitled “Imagine Peace” will display this exact message in 24 difference languages. Produced in conjunction with Art Production Fund and Times Square Alliance, they will show half-past every hour on three television screens—the largest measuring 15,000 square feet—throughout the day. The ambitious project is an extension of Ono’s Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland, dedicated to John Lennon, which encourages the public to make a wish for a better world. To find out more about her installation we spoke with Ono, who has mobilized peace efforts through music, performance, installations, and “instructions” for decades.
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John Lennon's Last Days: A Remembrance by Yoko Ono →
The last weekend was very quiet. The sky was cloudy in a restful way. And the town seemed as though it was asleep.
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Forbes: Yoko Ono: I Feel Invisible →
Yoko Ono has an exquisite aptitude for noticing things.
The first time I saw her was on Mercer Street one evening as the light started to lean over the city. Strolling from my office, I saw a small figure in black hat and long coat walking toward me. I didn’t realize it was her until we stood only a few strides away, but as we passed she looked up and smiled warmly right at me.
That Ono met and held my gaze was all the more unusual in Manhattan, where it’s often considered rude. But she seemed utterly calm in that moment on the sidewalk, like a silent watcher eager to grab the smallest sliver of connection with another as she passed.
The same quality is apparent in her new book, An Invisible Flower, out now by Chimera Library. Ono illustrated this elegant tome in 1952, when she was 19 years old, but this is the first time it has been published. Sean Lennon found the pages of pastel chalk drawings and hand-written text it in a closet one day at home and finally prevailed upon his mum to allow its dissemination.
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YokoKimThurston and John Cage ‘Shock’: Yoko Ono has been making interesting music for 50 years. →
Similarly, Ono’s participation on another new-to-market CD, YokoKimThurston, makes that recording one of the best experimental Sonic Youth side-projects—and there have been many—to come out in some time. Brokenhearted fans of the band who may be hoping for at least a creative reconciliation between Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore shouldn’t get their hopes up based on their appearance with Ono here: YokoKimThurston was recorded in February 2011, before the couple’s recent divorce. When Gordon and Moore told me about the anticipated project during a 2009 interview, they thought it might come out on SYR, Sonic Youth’s boutique label for way-out-there experimentation.
Instead, Chimera Music is putting it out. Run in part by Ono’s son Sean Lennon, it’s the same label the family used in 2009 to put out Ono’s best song-based album in a couple decades, Between My Head and the Sky. YokoKimThurston is, in contrast, not an album of songs: If you go in expecting pop forms—which Ono has also shown a facility for, over the years—you’ll wind up frustrated, possibly cursing experimental art on the whole and feeling sad about the $10-$15 you just spent.
If you listen for texture, on the other hand, and for the unfolding of an experiment guided by expert experimenters, you’ll find a lot on YokoKimThurston to hold your attention. Ono’s delicate exploration of vocal technique on the mostly wordless-but-haunting opener, “I Missed You Listening,” puts the lie to her screaming-only reputation. And when Gordon joins Ono for an odd sort of duet, we get two of avant-rock’s most celebrated (and divisive) female vocalists working together for the first time. That needed to happen.
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