“Beatle John Lennon married his Japanese mistress, Yoko Ono, in a civil ceremony today in Gibraltar, the Beatles’ office announced.”
That was how the Associated Press began its article on the wedding between avant-garde artist Yoko Ono and the singer-songwriter John Lennon on this day 45 years ago: March 20, 1969.
The fact that the phrase “Japanese mistress” was used in a newspaper article is startling, especially considering that in 1969, the 34-year-old Ono was already an established artist, sculptor and filmmaker. Reading that sentence this week, I also couldn’t help but think of the coverage of the sudden death of fashion designer L’Wren Scott, who allegedly committed suicide on Monday, and how her identity was swiftly erased to the point that she was merely referred to as “Mick Jagger’s girlfriend.” How little things have changed in 45 years.
While most of the world met Yoko Ono at around the same time John Lennon did–on that famous day in 1966 in the Indica Gallery when the Beatle climbed a ladder to view her famous “Ceiling Painting“–Ono had been making a name for herself in the London and New York art scenes for years before that, experimenting with the themes of feminism and identity.
Grapefruit, Ono’s 1964 debut book, was designed to be something of an instruction manual for life with pointers like “Step in all the puddles in the city” and “Listen to the sound of the earth turning.” (As an aside, her Twitter account can, in many ways, be looked at as a modern-day extension of Grapefruit. A recent tweet encouraged followers to “Imagine letting a goldfish swim across the sky. Let it swim from the West to the East…”)
For her 1965 work titled “Cut Piece,” Ono sat in the center of a gallery floor while gallery visitors approached to cut away pieces of the black outfit she was wearing. Last year, The Guardian named the performance one of the most shocking performance art pieces of all time, noting that it “started politely but became more and more threatening as her clothes were reduced to rags and she kneeled in her underwear.”
The aggression of the gallery visitors is palpable in this clip of “Cut Piece.” I flinched several times after the 7:00 mark as we see a man cut away Ono’s bra. For her part, the artist does her best to maintain a netural expression throughout:
Ono’s lifelong fascination with sexuality, the human body, and taboos were all readily apparent in the 1966 film No. 4, better known as “Bottoms.” Co-directed by Ono and her then-husband Anthony Cox, the film consisted of closeups of the posteriors of various people as they walked around the couple’s Manhattan apartment. The film was an instant hit among New York’s arthouse crowd and Ono would go on to make an 80-minute version of the film that featured the anatomy of over 300 people.
Needless to say, the British Board of Film Censors was less than thrilled about the film and banned it because it was thought to be obscene and “not suitable for public exhibition.” Because there’s nothing like a ban to boost interest in a work of art, demand to see the film grew. For her part, Ono professed that she couldn’t understand why anyone would ban No. 4, telling a reporter, “It’s quite harmless. There’s no murder or violence in it. Why shouldn’t it be given a certificate?”
As you can probably imagine, this clip from the film is extremely NSFW. Ono was apparently fascinated by the fact that from this angle it is practically impossible to determine the gender of the participants:
Ono and Cox eventually got No. 4’s ban overturned after a peaceful outdoor demonstration that included handing out roses to passersby and a meeting with the head of the censor board.
Yoko Ono would of course reach an entirely different level of celebrity after her relationship with Lennon began. And many people–die-hard Beatles fans in particular–were not prepared to see a Beatle attach himself to a Japanese conceptual artist. While we are now used to seeing the old footage of fainting girls and screaming Beatles fans, the reality of living in the Beatlemania bubble was much more complicated (and, as we saw with Lennon’s murder, much more tragic.)
Ono herself wrote about the media’s perceptions and prejudices about her marriage in the intro to the 2000 book Lennon Remembers:
He married a woman “eight years older” was the official running joke. “Dragon Lady” was the other. The unofficial one went from Jap to Chink to Bitch.
By concentrating on the media’s coverage of her relationship, Ono glosses over the most vicious culprits: ordinary fans and Lennon’s own family. As Jacqueline Edmondson notes in her biography of Lennon, the fans that would congregate outside Abbey Road studios would scream slurs like “chink” and “yellow” as she walked past. A young girl waiting outside Abbey Road once pushed a bouquet of yellow roses into Ono’s hands, thorns first, in an attempt to cut her hands. And Lennon’s beloved Aunt Mimi openly disdained her, and greeted her nephew with the question “Who’s the poisoned dwarf?” after first being introduced to her.
The artist at the center of it all insisted that she was unaffected by it all, later telling Playboy’s David Schiff, “When all that hate energy was focused on me, it was transformed into a fantastic energy. It was supporting me. If you are centered and you can transform all of this energy that comes in, it will help you. If you believe it’s going to kill you, it will kill you.”
As for Lennon’s thoughts on all of this, he wrote the following in his book Skywriting by Word of Mouth:
“Having been brought up in the genteel poverty of a lower-middle class environment, I should have not been surprised by the outpouring of race-hatred and anti-female to which we were subjected in that bastion of democracy, Great Britain.”
John Lennon, of course, was far from an ideal husband or father, particularly to his first wife and son Julian, who he abandoned for years after his divorce. Cynthia Lennon has written about his verbal and physical abuse and how he’d bully her into doing LSD, even though it made her ill.
Despite all of this, and despite their own often-troubled relationship, Ono and Lennon’s mutual respect for each other’s talent was clear throughout their time together. ”John protected me and he did love my work, and there weren’t very [many] people then who loved my work,” Ono said in an interview last year.
Happy anniversary, Yoko.
Tags: artists, beauty, john lennon, Lakshmi Gandhi, music, orientalism, racism, the beatles, yoko ono
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WOW to Cut Piece. Such a simple way to show the variables of human nature. Fuck that guy at the 7 min mark, no doubt a real winner in person.
Yeah, I think that affected me more than I anticipated. It felt as though the more pieces of clothing went missing, the more people felt entitled to take bigger and more intimate pieces.
When I was taking “women’s art history” at ECIAD, I vaguely remember discussing an artist who did a performance piece involving a group of women and a large, plate glass public display unit (imagine a mall mannequin set piece). She instructed these women to simply go about their business, i.e. read, sit, pace, etc. and ignore people who stopped to stare.
Mens’ reactions to these women ranged from amused contempt to yelling and cursing in deranged attempts for attention.
(I wish I could remember this more fully; if any Toastie can corroborate this 1993 recollection I’d appreciate it!)
Outside of a bar one night I was waiting for my friend to use the bathroom and a man (with a lady) barked at me, “Woof. There Pat goes.” Honestly, I didn’t even realize it was meant for me so I paid him no attention. He continued to speak loudly about how he was going to steal my bike. The best was when he began wooing his lady with this delightful erotica, “I’m going to work you over like the little white girl you are.” Seriously? And it was all performed for my benefit.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is I LOVE IGNORING MEN.
This sounds vaguely familiar…..sounds a bit Adrian Piper-ish, perhaps? (I’m off to my bookshelves to read further!)
Adrian Piper? I’m intrigued.
I have never been a fan of Yoko Ono but I have always got the feeling that she is living her life to the fullest and I respect her for that.
I do like her new video, Bad Dancer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3mvEfON2CI
Haven’t seen that video before, hilarious! Thanks for sharing.
For those interested in viewing Cut Piece while in a gallery environment, a video is on display as part of a destruction themed exhibit at the Hirshhorn, Damage Control.
I have always loved Yoko.
Yoko Ono* for Official Toast Stance
*not “pro Yoko Ono” or “liking Yoko Ono.” Just “Yoko Ono.”
I know that when I say this I may be stepping on pins and needles
But I don’t like all those people slagging her for breaking up the Beatles
Don’t blame it on Yokey!
Be my, be my, be my, be my, be my Yoko Ono, whoaaaa.
I have always blamed Ringo. Little twat.
Yesssssss. Do go on.
This is excellent, and reminded me of this series from a few years ago on Yoko and the Beatles: http://thecurvature.com/2008/12/15/yoko-ono-a-fem…
I’m so glad to have learned all of this, thank you! Personally I have always been impressed by her published books, especially her books for children. I don’t know if I can bring myself to watch Cut Piece, although it sounds like an amazing work of art.
I saw an exhibit at the MoMA recently that featured Yoko Ono as an artist. It mentioned that she was Japanese, avant-garde, and had been married to composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, who was also featured in the exhibit. It didn’t mention anything about Lennon or the Beatles.
It was a very surreal experience. I realized it was the first time I had ever seen Ono’s name without the requisite “former wife of Beatle John Lennon” tag line.
Holy cats, the “mistress” thing. WHAT?
I saw Ono’s ladder installation and got to wander through that transparent maze she constructed. It was great, except for when I smacked into one of the walls and left a nose print.
This is an excellent piece. Thanks!
I love Yoko wholeheartedly. One time while slightly tipsy I DM’d her on Twitter to tell her she’d always been the best. I bet she gets a few thousand or so of those messages a night BUT SHE IS THE BEST.
I'm not really sophisticated enough about music to get her musical work, I think, but her performance pieces and film work tap right into my bloodstream. It's fascinating to consider what each of us finds accessible or interesting or affecting.
I read a good piece about how people never stop to think that Yoko maybe was ruining her art career by hooking up with a pop musician. As in, did she break up the band, or did John perhaps destroy some of her fluxus cred? In some ways she was a more respected artist than he was when they got together and then ever after she was the “mistress of a beatle”
I love her unreservedly for her courage. And her commitment to peace. And her hats.
Yoko is indeed the very best. I demand more Yoko-related Toast action, as is only good and proper.
Yoko is indeed the very best. I demand more Yoko-related Toast action, as is only good and proper.
Watching Cut Piece, wow. A lot of different things interacting–including Japanese and Buddhist modes of suffering (Kurosawa, self-immolated monks) playing off Western (Christian) imagery of martyrdom, the physical pain of sitting like that on a hard floor, the physical presence / threat of the scissors themselves; wondering, how would the ‘same’ piece go down today? watching Yoko’s breathing and trying to understand what she is feeling; wondering what the ‘right’ approach would be (cut off part of one’s own clothing? cut a small snip of hers, then bow gratefully?); wow.