Lecture: Yoko Ono
We were assigned to watch six parts regarding Yoko Ono and then add a blog post about them.
These are my notes:
Part 1:
Ono was born in 1933 in a wealthy family where her parents were married for love (something unusual at the time). Her father was an international banker.
In the first part, it started off by a snippet of her son explaining that it was hard growing up as her son because of the misconceptions of her. She was portrayed as a dark and destructive character. Ono is one of the most famous Japanese women, even though the real her still remains a mystery.
Yoko Ono became one of the most controversial women after marrying John Lennon. This made people hate her and she was known as the woman who broke up the Beatles. She was always hidden and mysterious, however, this was intensified when she got with John. However, even from before that happened, she was a provocative artist as she had 2 failed marriages and one daughter who disappeared.
She liked creating controversial pieces such as the performance piece 'Cut piece' (which I explored in a previous blog post). She invited the audience to come and cut her clothes which annoyed and disturbed the people that were watching it. In the video, it shows and supports how brave and bold Yoko Ono was. Her objective was to get to people and make them feel different emotions. However, some of those feelings are not always positive. A person also told the interviewer that her objective was to make half of the people to get up and leave, otherwise, it was not successful. She always loved strong emotions from the audience, which is what made her controversial as she upset people.
Re-watching scenes from that performance disturbed me again as you can vividly see how uncomfortable she is on stage.
Yoko had a sense of unease since childhood. Even her mother did not have a lot of time to spend with her. She was very busy and barely found time to dedicate to Ono. This made Ono want to please her mother. However, this changed as she wanted her father to approve of her.
She was asked the question 'were you a happy child' by the interviewer, which made Ono very hesitant to respond. She took her time to think and said 'this is funny because..', perhaps suggesting that she was a very unhappy child. When looking at herself on tape, she looks happy, however, the memory of her childhood takes a different perspective. She was afraid of the dark and the night approaching as she had multiple nightmares.
She always felt alone, like she would never fit in. This applies to the schools both in America and in Japan as she felt that she was very different from the rest. In the mid 50s, she dropped out of the American college and went to Manhattan, where she finally found her way to fit in and express herself.
Ono focused on art and was involved in many artistic pieces. In some of her pieces, she would throw food at the wall as artistic pieces.
In 1957, she married a japanese composer. 5 years later, she went back to Tokyo with him. As a Japanese artist, she was not very accepted by the people. She found it very hard to be in such a society.
Part 2:
At the age of 29, she tried to commit suicide as she was depressed. She felt alone, like no one was listening to her. Her husband and parents reached out for help, where they put her into a psychiatric hospital.
One specific visitor came in everyday with flowers and impressed all the nurses. The nurses insisted that Ono had to see this person. This person was Tony Cox, an American artist who was a fan of Ono's paintings. Ono was charmed by him and decided to leave the hospital with him.
She divorced the Japanese composer, married Tony Cox and became pregnant. In 1963, she gave birth to a girl. Their relationship fluctuated and within a year it was very unstable. They returned to New York and Tony was Ono's promoter. Tony was described as the 'frontman' and Ono was described as the 'power behind everything'.
In 1966, she got an invitation to go to London, even though she was hesitant about it. However, she decided to go and she absolutely loved it. She loved it so much that she decided to stay.
In 1966, she also had an exhibition of her work where the Beatles were known to hang out. On the night before the opening, John Lennon dropped by. John started looking at her work and imitating it. One of Ono's work had the word 'breathe' on it and he closely observed it and then took a deep breath. He also took a bite out of an apple included in her work, which frustrated and angered Ono. However, John was still married at the time this happened and he had a 3 year old son.
They bonded well together and even her husband at the time, Tony, was a fan of this as they thought that this would help promote her work. However, this took a turn and they became inseparable, something that the Beatles fans were not in favour of.
In 1968, she divorced Tony in order to live with Lennon.
Part 3:
John really brought out the good in Ono and she was very happy when she was with him. Lennons first exhibition was declared to Ono as a sign of love.
However, it was evident that the rest of the Beatles started getting annoyed by his obsession with Ono, and so were the Beatles fans which brought some tension in the band. They felt intimidated as though Ono 'broke their magic'. They felt like she was invading their personal bond and ripping apart everything by her recommendations and suggestions.
Lennon even brought Ono to the studio as they wanted to be together all the time, which further annoyed the band mates. People were very angry towards them. Lennon always insisted for her to sit on the piano next to him, go to the bathroom with him which made them look and be inseparable.
However, Ono was unaware of what the Beatles meant to people and what she was causing at the time. She was considered a 'home wrecker'. However, she felt that this was unfair on her as John was also considered a 'home wrecker' by ending her marriage with Tony.
Regardless of the madness going on, they got married in 1969. In 1970, the band broke up which caused the couple to isolate from everyone and only see each other. They stayed in bed all day and their relationship because a routine.
The daughter of Ono described her childhood as rather 'scary' and a questionable environment to be in. She had to lie at the back of the cars as people were always screaming when they were around them. In 1971, Tony took the daughter back. Yoko wanted to get her back by kidnapping her but the daughter started screaming. They were taken to court for this action.
Tony stayed with his daughter and then disappeared again. Yoko wasn't able to see her daughter for 25 years. Yoko even tried spiritual ways such as Ouija board to find her.
Part 4:
In late 1971, John and Yoko moved to New York. Their relationship was starting to add a lot of pressure and the FBI was looking for ways to deport them.
At a party, John ended up in a room with a girl and ended up making love. Yoko and everyone else could hear them which made Ono feel weak and frozen.
By 1973, Yoko realised that her relationship was going downhill. She made a plan to test their love. She wanted to be with someone that was passionate about her.
Her plan was to set another girl called May up to go out with John. After a few weeks, they flew out to Los Angeles together. John reassured May that he indeed had feelings for her.
John wanted desperately to go back to Yoko and phoned her multiple times during the day. However, Yoko did not want him back just yet.
After a year without John, she travelled to Japan for her first solo tour. She realised how much she wanted John and how in love with him she was at that point in her life.
It was at this point where Yoko allowed John to return back home. Therefore, John had to tell May that he was going back, leaving her all sad.
Part 5:
After John went back to Yoko, they had a son in 1975. John stayed at home to take care of their son, while Yoko was discovering new passions. When their son was 4, John and Yoko started writing music together, coming out with the album ' double fantasy'.
At this point in their life, both John and Yoko were very pleased with how they were handling situations, something that Yoko now considers 'arrogance'.
After a recording session, a killer shouted Johns name and then fired 5 times. Yoko was told by the doctor to announce to the people what happened. She told the world first, and then waited another 24 hours to reveal it to their son.
Sean's perspective (their son) shows that he vividly remembers this announcement. He remember a newspaper being placed next to Yoko which showed a headline of the death. Sean cried a lot when his father died but he did not want Yoko to know.
After Johns death, Yoko was very silent and barely ate. However, Sean thought that this was the point where their real relationship began where they became a lot closer. They only had each other after Johns death so it was inevitable for them to hold on to each other and become closer.
She started a new life with Sam Havadtoy whom she still lives with today.
Final part 6:
Yoko still faced many obstacles as she was still not liked by people. Family members of John also criticised her for the way she handled his death and legacy. Family members complain about not receiving any of his belonging and calling Yoko 'insecure'.
By 1993, Yoko's daughter was considering to get back in touch with her. Her father, Tony, took her into hiding earlier. Her daughter became engaged and also told her fiance that before they have kids, she wants to contact Yoko as she wouldn't feel good with herself.
Therefore, she decided to call her. Kyoko (daughter) refused to give her name to the assistant that responded to the call so she decided to leave her phone number for Yoko to call back. A few minutes later, Kyoko received a call from her. They ended up getting along as friends.
Yoko returned to her art the last few years. This shows her passion to create and explore in this world. This does not cover up the fact that Yoko still remained unhappy.
References:
debandana (2010) The real Yoko Ono (Part 1 of 6). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f5SbaMMI7U [Accessed: 12/05/21]
debandana (2010) The real Yoko Ono (Part 2 of 6). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rajjTRMYbzE [Accessed: 12/05/21]
debandana (2010) The real Yoko Ono (Part 3 of 6). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eTLGDsTF3A [Accessed: 12/05/21]
debandana (2010) The real Yoko Ono (Part 4 of 6). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md-MG_ZKAf8 [Accessed: 12/05/21]
debandana (2010) The real Yoko Ono (Part 5 of 6). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p-VpRxf6dw [Accessed: 12/05/21]
debandana (2010) The real Yoko Ono (Part 6 of 6). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPLnjoEPwe0 [Accessed: 12/05/21]
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