Ono tried selling her earliest copies on the streets of Tokyo, lugging them around in an orange box, but the interest was minimal. “Grapefruit,” as a conceptual art book, itself received a lukewarm response upon its introduction to the public and critics in 1964. She often described herself as a “misfit” despite being known in the art world at the time. From there, I decide to revisit my own copy of “Grapefruit,” which was bookmarked to the “Water Piece” page. I leave a message about Amanda, mentioning all the times she sheltered me and my siblings during tornado warnings in Texas. It’s a white canvas blanketed with layers and layers of personal messages to mothers.

Sunday’s concert was the culmination of the Hirshhorn’s “Summer of Yoko,” an exhibition that celebrated, and in some cases recreated, four of Ono’s works, two in the participatory style of art that became the focus of “Grapefruit.”Īs soon as you walk through the doors of the museum, you’re greeted with Ono’s “My Mommy Is Beautiful” participation piece. Gordon, who headlined the performances that night, didn’t specify a 10-year deadline, opting instead to say that everyone would meet again “at a certain time.” Online, there are people asking whether Ono would let them know when the time I have the pieces of the vase that we smashed and shared in Dallas 10 years ago. “This is what the vase looked like,” Gordon said. Black-clad handlers had unfurled a cloth that held hundreds of white and blue fragments and placed them next to the unbroken vase. “So, it’s been pre-broken,” Gordon said to laughs in the audience. Musician Kim Gordon performs at a one-night tribute concert in honor of Yoko Ono at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. But due to “conservationists,” “it had to be broken in a very special way,” Gordon told the crowd. Gordon explained that she and Lizzi Bougatsos and Camar Ayewa - the other artists who performed in the museum’s central courtyard - had planned to shatter the vase in front of the hundreds of people who gathered for the Ono tribute. She then asked them to pick up a piece, one by one, to carry home.Īs retold in her subversive book of instructions “Grapefruit,” which came out in 1964, anyone who took a fragment of the vase would promise to meet again in 10 years to reassemble the smashed object.Īt a one-night-only tribute Sunday at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., Ono’s “Promise Piece” was once again orchestrated, this time by experimental artist and musician Kim Gordon.Īt the end of the night, a white-and-blue vase that stood as high as Gordon’s thighs was hoisted on stage next to her. One night in London more than 50 years ago, Yoko Ono broke a vase on stage before her audience. The instructions were simple, but take years to complete.

Yoko ono grapefruit vowels