Maureen Nicholson posted this wonderful image on social media. Kerry Sully captured the Vancouver Art Gallery facade which advertises an exhibition on the retrospective work of Yoko Ono.
At this time of global unrest and upset having the chance to go the Vancouver Art Gallery on Georgia Street and reflect on the life work of Yoko Ono offers a retrospective on war…and on peace.
In history Yoko Ono was the woman who allegedly broke up the music group The Beatles in having an affair with John Lennon. In reality she was already an established artist, and it appears from many biographies the musical group was already going into different directions. Yoko Ono’s art career spans six decades and her work often involves the public Most of the time her work has been quite controversial.
The “Growing Freedom” exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery is in two parts, the first is participatory in that visitors can make “reparations” by putting together broken pieces of porcelain, writing notes to their moms, and tacking a nail into canvas.
The second part, based upon peaceful sit-in protests, shows the work that John Lennon and Yoko Ono did towards advocating for peace, which included “bed-ins” in Amsterdam and in Montreal.
The “bed-in” in Montreal was at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in August 1969. They had been married for three months but the fact they were protesting the Vietnam war and meeting people and having interviews from a bed was seen as revolutionary at the time. In retrospect Yoko Ono felt they were naive, but fifty years later the event is still talked about. They also wrote a song during the bed-in called “Give Peace A Chance”.
You can find out more about this exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery which closes June 1 by clicking this link.You can also view two YouTube videos b about the bed-in. The film below is actually put together by Yoko Ono on the bed-in and has conversations with John Lennon on peace.
The second film is more contemporary, describing the room in Montreal (which can still be rented today) as well as how the song “Give Peace a Chance” got recorded in the room, with drop-in artists including singer Petula Clark. You can view that by clicking this link.
