Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind

I think I’m not the same after this exhibition.

Yoko Ono brought us an early conceptual and participatory art, film, performance, music, and all in between along with an extensive campaign for world peace. ‘Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind’ is the UK’s largest exhibition celebrating key moments in Ono’s career, from the mid-1950s to now, and let me tell you, there are plenty of key moments beyond her relationship with John Lennon. And her work with Lennon is pretty small if compared with her whole career as an artist.

It was my first time experiencing and seeing in person her work and I feel like she has been underestimated or not very well understood for a long time. Her conceptual work makes sense and has a full meaning if the audience engages with it and I absolutely love that. It is magical, personal, intimate, powerful, and each encounter is different, adding extra layers of meaning to the work. I didn’t realise how big fan I am of the use (smartly and powerfully) of daily objects.

The set up is minimal, like her work at first, all in white or black and white. You add the colour to the work. One was about imagining your own paintings after reading some of her instructions. It was a space for peace, reflection, and conversation. You can see how the works and her practice evolve with time, reflecting social events but also personal ones and that invites everyone to reflect themselves on it.

I always say that art activism is a special and powerful tool to educate and learn about so many things, from art to society, putting empathy and dialogue into play. And Ono has crowned herself with it.