YOKO ONO GIVES WOMEN A VOICE
Artwork will share stories of violence
Yoko Ono is seeking female participants for an artwork that will be shown in Montreal starting next month.
Ono is asking women to share “a testament of harm done to you for being a woman,” as part of her ongoing art installation, Arising. Participants are also asked to send a photo of their eyes.
“Write your testament in your own language, in your own words and write however openly you wish,” Ono requested, in the call-out. “You may sign your first name if you wish, but do not give your full name.”
Arising has been shown around the world since it premièred as part of the Venice Biennale in 2013.
“After I did this, I thought, ‘Did I forget about men?’” Ono said of the piece at the time. “But let’s do women first, because women are really in trouble for over 2,000 years. So we just have to hear what women had to go through.
“I think it is very interesting to hear their stories, and I did not expect that it would open such a big door. Now this door is open, and there are so many women who wanted to say something. It is a very big thing. It is as if the whole world of women is getting the opportunity to say something.”
In Montreal, the installation will be part of an exhibition of Ono’s artwork titled Growing Freedom, at the Fondation Phi pour l’art contemporain (previously DHC/ART), April 25 to Sept. 15.
“It’s a participatory art project, in which Yoko is inviting women of all ages and cultural
backgrounds to talk about and offer stories of violence done to them, or difficulties they have faced just for being female,” said Cheryl Sim, managing director and curator at the Fondation Phi pour l’art contemporain.
“They can submit their story with a photo of their eyes to us, and we will present it in an installation in our gallery space.”
Arising will be shown alongside other interactive works by Ono in which instructions are given to visitors. The work makes an important statement about the condition of women, particularly in the #MeToo era, Sim opined.
“It’s really very much in keeping with Yoko’s desire for action and participation. It gives women a voice. Historically under patriarchal society in the west, women have been silenced.
“This is a public opportunity, a way for women to get their voice out there, in their own words and their own way. The authorship resides specifically with the women. This is an important gesture that gets the discussion started around the silencing of women, and some of the intense narratives women are surrounded by daily.”
Submissions can be made by email, regular mail or dropped off in person, and will be accepted any time before or during the run of the exhibition. All submissions will be displayed.
“It’s going to be an evolutive piece,” Sim explained. “As (submissions) come in, we will print them out, lay them out and post them on the wall — we have quite a bit of wall space. When that fills up, we will take (older submissions) one level down and put them into books that people can consult.
“If people come back, they will see the evolution and accumulation of these stories and be able to appreciate the condition of contemporary women in Montreal.”
Sim expects the bulk of submissions to come from Montreal women, but she notes that the call is open to women from all over.
In that respect, Arising is consistent with Ono’s attempts to show the universal through an accumulation of individual acts of engagement.
“She really likes to be sensitive to the context of a place, and where a show is taking place,” Sim said. “It’s important that Montreal women, Quebec and Canadian women have an opportunity to respond to this call to action.”
This year, Arising is also being shown in Leipzig, Germany; in Leeds and Cambridge, England; and in Lima, Peru, among other places.
“It has had many iterations around the world,” Sim said. “A huge part of why I love her work so much is it is about connection, ultimately. It reinforces the idea that we’re all connected.
“To know that women have engaged with this piece in Peru, Oslo, Mexico City and Japan, it really makes our world smaller and allows us to see that we’re all the same.”