(Yoko Prepares to "Fly" at Cranbrook in 1989)

On our first day at Cranbrook, Tom, Melba Sharp and I were treated to an interesting, humorous and enlightening lecture given by Yoko to Cranbrook students and guests. Four years ago, the lecture was one of our favorite events. This year was no exception. Four years ago, Yoko went "flying" from a small ladder and broke a vase in Promise Piece. This year, on the same stage, Yoko searched for her "comfort level" in a very unorthodox manner as we shall explain after the introduction.

Roy Slade: "I want to welcome you and welcome Yoko Ono back to Cranbrook. I also want to say 'thankyou' to Jon Hendricks and David Rau, the co-curators of the exhibition, and most of all to say this is a very special occasion, to bring Yoko back after four years.

In that four years, she has shown (her art) in Japan, in Europe - she has shown work that for the first time is being brought together here at Cranbrook and it's also her first opportunity to see it in its entirety in our museum. Yoko Ono, as you know, is an artist that I first met and heard lecture, like she's lecturing today, nearly 30 years ago in Leeds. She was regarded as one of the most avant-garde artists of the time and we are delighted today that that status, that reputation as one of the most innovative artists of her time is confirmed here at Cranbrook. For that reason, Yoko, we welcome you back to Cranbrook." (Applause)

Yoko broke the ice in the packed theater immediately after Mr. Slade's introduction by walking around to the back of the cloth-draped table they'd set up for her, throwing her black jacket on the floor and sitting on the floor beside the table. Then she crawled under the table and peeked out from the cloth. Each time she'd find a new place to sit, she'd say "Hello" and the audience would burst into laughter.

She finally wound up standing like General Patton (see picture) with her hands on her hips and barked out a deep-throated "HELLO!" The audience broke into loud applause and laughter. This was definitely not going to be your everyday run-of-the-mill lecture!

Yoko began by explaining that her sitting and crawling demonstration had been to show how everyone tries to find his or her own comfort level. That point at which life is good, all is well, there is no discomfort. The problem is,of course, that the perfect comfort level is elusive and we really can't have it until everyone is comfortable.

Tom and I related immediately to that concept because we often are sitting in our nice home in our comfortable recliners watching television or reading, when suddenly a news story will come on about starving children or wars overseas. We'll then share a feeling of guilt for our own good fortune. How can we enjoy our luck when others are in so much misery? Our comfort suddenly shifts to a lower level.

Yoko: "All of us in this life are just looking for our comfort level. I know that some people think they are seeking discomfort, but then that means that discomfort is their comfort." (Don't you all know people who aren't happy unless they're miserable?)

"All we're doing is seeking our own comfort level. What is real comfort? If you have two cars,a huge house, beautiful lawn with a swimming pool, you may think that's a comfort level. But you may not be expecting the constant care you have to put into the house: You have to clean the swimming pool, you have to have people to do that, you have to keep making sure that the lawn is all right and maybe you need three or four cars because you have another child and she wants one too. Is that your comfort level?

"Even when you're in your most comfortable position, maybe you have a little butterfly in your stomach because you're afraid you might lose the comfort level, or people might take it away from you, because they're all angry because you've got your final comfort, when they're not comfortable.

"We are very sensitive animals. We cannot be comfortable - we will never be able to be happy unless all of us are happy. Because when somebody's killed in Somalia, we'll sleep well regardless because we don't think about it, we block it out of our minds, but our body is feeling it. As a race, we are all connected and when some violence is going on somewhere on Earth, we feel it."

Yoko told the art students in the theater that she feels a special bond with them and that she hoped they would always try to encourage each other as artists. She said that the pain and struggle they are going through as would-be artists is something she shares with them - after all these years, she still feels she's at the same point as a struggling artist. She then told a story about what women have to endure as artists and as people.

Yoko: "When I was 22, I was at this dance party, dancing away, feeling very good. Then I sat down and these guys came over and said, 'You know, you look okay now, but did you know that in two years you're going to be old?' Two years? 'Yeah, women get old very quickly.' (Audience laughs) Of course, I didn't take it seriously and I don't even remember who said it, except I remember the words.

"This year is a very special year for me because I became 60 years old and I thought about that statement, and I thought how wrong he was! (Laughter) I'd just like you to know when you become 20, 30, 40, don't believe at all what society says about those landmark ages. It doesn't mean anything. I'm still scurrying around. I'm still a student with a big question mark about the future and I still feel that I have to do so much. Because of that, I think I'm given the energy to do it."

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

The first question came from a young man who took exception to a statement Yoko made that artists are all part of the Peace Movement. He asked Yoko how her violent imagery in the Blood Objects exhibit could be considered part of any Peace Movement.

Yoko: "I feel that I want to share an image of reality and try to go on from first recognizing the reality and then maybe being able to avoid it. With all those Blood Objects, it is an experience that we can share, we can easily say that we do share. Sharing and experience can be very important in terms of preventing violence. Violence happens when people who enact violence feel like they are isolated, they're not being understood. They don't share their pain."

A woman asked Yoko about the destructivism as an art movement.

Yoko: I intentionally try not to be concerned about other people's labeling of my work. I do not want to be limited by any school of thought or school of art. When I was making something and putting it in a Fluxus group exhibition, about 30 years ago, some of the Fluxus colleagues would say, 'This not Fluxus,you can't have this in Fluxus' and I would say, 'Yes? Is there a rule? I thought we were against having rules.' It's very easy to become your own institution. I detest that. I want to surprise myself as well. When people say, 'What is your next plan?' I intentionally want to keep it blank so I will not limit my future with a plan. In terms of direction of my artwork, I'd like to keep it open."

Someone asked about artistic self-censorship.

Yoko: "I keep saying 'Speak out, speak out', meanwhile, I'm censoring myself. This is just a confession, but after John's death, I thought, 'Okay, you've said too much.' I looked at my son and said, 'It's very important for me to stay alive for this Being, so I'm going to shut up now. We had our say, now it's your turn.' But then I started to feel that is really the wrong attitude and I started to speak out again - maybe in a more gentle way.

"But still there's an element in me that is censoring myself. Maybe I realize that silence is very wise sometimes. When there are five people talking and you're one of them, you try not to say something to hurt them. But each time we're silent, we're not alive, they don't register you as an alive person. You're just there. It is better to say something.

"Maybe that means you'll hurt someone then you'll have to have some guilt feelings and will say something to correct it, but speak out. It's very important. For artists too. Are you censoring yourself because you think it's not proper or it's too proper? Just make it . Make the statement or produce the work. Don't be afraid. People are not going to love you because you made something great - in fact, quite often they don't because you made something great! (Laughter)

People are not going to hate you because you made something awful, because awful is only a subjective thing. It has nothing to do with people loving you or hating you. Either way, they hate you, either way they love you. When you do something you want to do, even ten, twenty years later, when somebody comes up to you and says, 'You know, that thing you made twenty years ago, that really touched me, or changed my life', it's so rewarding. As long as you did something that's very genuinely motivated and if that affects people, then you know you affected them. Truth is power. And you've got that. Even a tiny grain of truth is more powerful than a huge illusion."

At this point, the last person to receive the Whisper Piece that Yoko had started at the beginning of the lecture, comes down to Yoko's table and whispers it in her ear. Yoko looks taken aback and says, "What??" The audience roars with laughter.

Yoko: "Well, I think it's interesting. What I learned from this is the message is totally different from what I passed on, but still it was great to pass it on. Did you see the smiles and the nice feeling going around the room? It's worth it. It always comes back totally different from what you expected. I sent it out as 'I love you very much' and it came back as 'The umbrella is faltering.'" (Laughter and murmers through the crowd for several seconds as the students try to pinpoint the culprit who changed the words along the path.)

Yoko: "This is so exciting! Finally, you're having a dialogue. This is so interesting because this is my experience all the time. I put out a message and I read the newspaper and say, 'What is this?! I didn't say that!' One time I did Whisper Piece in the Destruction in Art Symposium in 1966 in London. Four or five very hot-blooded destruction art symposium type male artists protested that my work was not destructive and therefore, I should not be in the symposium, all based on the Whisper Piece. But I was not interested in just smashing a piano or a car or something - I was interested in the delicate way that things change. I was interested in that kind of destruction, which, in a way, is more dangerous."

A young woman asks Yoko why she wears sunglasses all the time - she was insistent that Yoko remove her sunglasses so she could see her eyes.

Yoko: "You don't ask why I'm wearing my pants. We usually say you can tell what people are thinking from their eyes. My husband used to say that you can control eye expression because we're so used to communicating through our eyes, but you can't control the expression of your mouth, because we're not used to it. This society has decided that if you look at somebody straight in the eyes and don't blink too much, you'll be believable. They concentrate so much on the eye expression, that they forget about the mouth. John used to think it was much more interesting to watch people's mouths. What the mouth is saying is very interesting because they forgot to control that part.

"Before we had that discussion, in 1966,in Indica Gallery, I did a show and on the cover of the brochure we had this photo where we were all hiding our mouths with masks. People kept asking 'Why are you hiding your mouth?' And I said, 'Because the mouth is obscene, you can't show it.' People suspect people who are wearing dark glasses..'Ah, she's hiding her thoughts or feelings, something's going on there' but you don't mind that I'm hiding myself with other things. I'm communicating with you with my whole body. Even if I'm not trying to communicate, I'm sending vibes to you that I can't control. So actually, just bringing this 60-year-old bod over here and letting it sit here, that's communication, that's an event just by doing that." (Laughter)

A woman who was obviously knowledgeable about John and Yoko, brought up the theory that Yoko's art career had suffered when she married John Lennon. She wondered if Yoko had experienced any difficulty re-establishing herself in the art world in the 13 years since John's death.

Yoko: "I don't ever think of myself as being established. I think of myself as always on the verge of emerging. Yes, it's true that career-wise, it might have been detrimental that I got together with John. It was for John, too, actually. But what we lost career-wise, we gained in inspiration and incentive to create. It was just great! We were not that concerned about career moves. We were arrogant about that, probably."