Ahead Of Her Time

Yoko Ono has been at the cutting edge of the avant-garde for half a century. Here, in a rare interview, she discusses success, social media, and the status quo with Julia Peyton-Jones.

- Julia Peyton-Jones

In 1970, John Lennon described his wife Yoko Ono as “the world’s most famous unknown artist”. Today, she is widely recognised as one of the most continuously inspiring talents in contemporary art. Her work is at once intellectual, avant-garde, emotional, and accessible, and continues to resonate decades after its creation. The performance-based Cut Piece, 1964, in which the audience was invited to use scissors to snip away her clothing, was a bold exploration of feminism and the role the female body plays in art. Grapefruit, her book of aphoristic poetry also published in 1964, now translates perfectly to Twitter, through which she communicates regularly with her 5.1 million followers. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden hosted a concert last September to celebrate Ono’s contribution to performance art, commemorating the 10th anniversary of her Wish Tree for Washington, DC artwork—a version of which was displayed at the Serpentine Gallery in 2012. Here, Ono talks to the Serpentine’s former director Julia Peyton-Jones about creativity, rebellion, and revolution.

Julia Peyton-Jones: We got to know each other when, together with Hans-Ulrich [Obrist], we curated your exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in 2012. The show was a sensation, and extremely well attended, gathering many positive reviews. Am I right in saying that the warm reception your work received in the UK was a new experience for you?

Yoko Ono: That was the first time in many years I felt that the English audience expressed their good feelings about my work. But actually starting in 1966 when I landed in London, there was a tremendous welcome to me by intellectuals. So years later, to receive another tremendous welcome was fantastic.