YOKO AND FLUXUS:
ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
By Richard Layne
(IK NOTE: This show runs February 6 - March 23, 1997 at the Royal Festival Hall and includes a great deal of Yoko art from the 60's, along with details about Fluxus artist George Maciunas as well as other Fluxus artists and pieces. On display are posters, audiotapes, videotapes, some of Yoko's early interactive pieces, the white chess set, the Mend piece with broken teacup, and "Telephone Piece". As discussed on Ono-Net, the telephone occasionally rings, and the lucky gallery goer with the nerve to pick it up, will perhaps have a discussion with Yoko herself. Yoko will place the calls from New York. The calls will be private, between her and the passerby who answers the phone. Nothing about the phone indicates to gallery-goers that Yoko is the one who will be on the other line, should they happen to pick up. The phone is a white pushbutton with a sign that says: "Telephone Piece for London: Pick up receiver when phone rings.")

This is the first opportunity I've had to attend an exhibition of Yoko's art. I now know how Brian Eno felt when faced with Duchamp's urinal.

The venue, London's Royal Festival Hall, is part of the South Bank Centre, housing various theaters, concert halls and galleries. The Royal Festival Hall is a major classical / jazz concert hall, with a large foyer area. Part of the foyer houses the exhibition.

Since the show is in such a public space - anyone going to a concert at the Royal Festival Hall, plus anyone using its many self-service restaurants, will pass the exhibition. It will probably bring Yoko and Fluxus' art to a much larger audience than would normally be expected. This is obviously a Good Thing.

I went on Saturday lunchtime, and the foyer was packed. The exhibition visitors were a combination of obvious Yoko fans (let's face it, you can spot them a mile off...), art students, tourists, families, etc. (For reasons I can't possibly imagine, children seemed fascinated by the screens showing "Fly" and "Bottoms.")

However, the presence of some form of Cajun band in another part of the foyer, plus the noise of the nearby restaurants, made (ahem) contemplation of the exhibits, and particularly hearing the sound pieces, very difficult. This is perhaps not a Good Thing. Nice coffee, though.

On to the exhibition. As promised, it is an overview of Yoko's 60's art, together with Fluxus. There's a lot here: concert promos, instruction paintings, sound pieces, Fluxus objects, manifestos, etc. Unfortunately, there's no catalog available, making contextualizing (and remembering!) all this difficult. There's also the inevitable problem of presenting art which was supposed to be collaborative / interactive as "religious icons" behind perspex. For instance, every conceivable edition of "Grapefruit" is here, including the original Japanese edition. But all of them are closed books in perspex cases. Obviously, I wouldn't expect them to be there to be picked up - these are valuable objects. But what's to be gained by seeing multiple copies of a book cover?

This difficulty is emphasized by the highlight of the show - the new (or, in fact, recreated) pieces. The new "Painting to Hammer a Nail In" (complete with an angry curator who rushed over in a panic whenever anyone actually started hammering!); "Telephone Piece for London" (she didn't call me, but I won't take it personally); also there were two Mail Art events - the postcards for one had run out, but the other was "Draw A Circle Event". (Draw a circle, and fill in a questionaire on circle drawing.)

In summary, despite any reservations, it is an excellent show and I intend to go back for a closer look, and to wait for that elusive phone call.

And finally, according to one board at the exhibition, "the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, is planning a retrospective of Yoko Ono's work". Typical. You wait for years for a Yoko exhibition, then two come along at once.

For anyone interested in merchandise from the Yoko / Fluxus exhibition, there's no catalog, and the Royal Festival Hall doesn't sell posters. However, there is a nice, exclusive item available. This is eight postcards of facsimiles of pieces from "Grapefruit", printed exclusively for this show. The set comes in a "box" (actually, a plain cardboard wallet with "yoko ono" printed in red on the front). This costs UKP3. You may be able to order this directly:

Contact: Deborah Power, Art Publications, South Bank Centre, Royal Festival Hall, London SE1, 8XX England.

Tele (0) 171-921-0894

Fax (0) 171-921-0892

IK wishes to thank Richard Layne for allowing us to reprint his review as it originally appeared on the Ono-Net Listserv. You can learn more about Yoko's art on the Ono-Net Pages
Return to Yoko Menu
Return to IK! Home Page