IK! - YES YOKO ONO - Walker Art Center Opening Weekend, March 9 and 10, 2001

YES YOKO ONO -
Opening Weekend Events
By Marsha Ewing

(Photo of Yes Yoko Ono Poster on side of Walker
Art Center by Marsha Ewing. Click for Close-up View)

The Premiere of the YES Yoko Ono retrospective at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota on March 9th and 10th was a success in every way that success can be measured. Sold out special events, a packed gallery, an incredible performance by Yoko and the chance for Tom and me to get together with old friends we hadn't seen in years - or had never met face to face during 20 years of IK! correspondence.

DAY ONE-MARCH 8, 2001

Tom and I arrived in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Thursday, March 8th, after a 12-hour car trip from Michigan. We figured the weather would be similar to our own, and we weren't disappointed. Or should I say, we wish we had been. It was colder than a well digger's knee in the Twin Cities. As you can see by the photo above, there is still plenty of snow on the ground.

Keri Wilson, who has been with IK! since 1901...well, maybe not that long...but a long time...arrived by airplane from Louisville, Kentucky that same night. Phil Biebl, another long-time IKer was due to arrive the following day. So it was old home week for IK! people. Tom and I had met Keri many moons ago when we were passing through Kentucky on our way to Florida, but we had never met Phil in person.

Thursday night was spent chatting with Keri and preparing our equipment - camcorder, digital camera, 35mm camera and tape recorder - for the press conference the next day. We thought we were ready.

DAY TWO-MARCH 9, 2001

THE PRESS CONFERENCE

On Friday morning, we met Keri for breakfast and did a bit of walking around Minneapolis. Turns out we were shopping near the same street corner where Mary Tyler Moore threw her hat in the air. That may not mean much to some of you, but it's a pretty big deal to Tom and me.

The three of us headed over to the Walker Art Center at 12:30. The first thing that catches the visitors eye as one enters the Walker lobby is a huge War Is Over poster. People were having their pictures taken in front of the poster throughout the weekend, and of course, Keri and I were no exception.

While we were in the lower level waiting for Tom to make a bathroom inspection, Keri and I had our first glimpse of Yoko's show. A Walker staffer was sitting on a chair in the doorway of the exhibit with a bag full of rocks at his feet, which he was diligently polishing, one by one. Of course, these rocks were being shined up to be piled in the Cleaning Piece installation. Keri and I would later each take a rock from the middle pile and place it in the Mound of Joy box.

Left:
Keri Wilson
Right:
Marsha Ewing

Flashing a Peace Sign Because It Seemed Like the Thing To Do.

Photo By Tom Ewing.

The press conference was scheduled for 2PM, but Tom threw me a little paranoia pill when he said, "I wonder if they meant Central Time or Eastern Time when they sent you that information." We had gotten there early just in case, which worked out well because we were among the first media people to walk through the door of the Walker Auditorium, which meant we snagged ourselves a front row seat. I had to sign in for IK! and Keri walked in as our "assistant."

On the way in, the Walker people were handing out little white buttons with the handwritten words "Free Us - Y.O. 01" You can see the little white spot on my jacket - that's the button which we wore throughout the weekend.

Yoko arrived first for the press conference, followed by Fluxus expert Jon Hendricks, Japan Society Director, Alexandra Munroe, Walker Art curator Joan Rothfuss and Walker Art Center Director, Kathy Halbreich. Hendricks and Munroe are also co-authors of the YES Yoko Ono book. Asked by one reporter what she had planned for future work, Yoko said, "It's almost unhealthy to try to look into the future. I try to keep it an open book, and anything can happen.'' Asked about themes in her art, Yoko said, "I never think of a theme. I allow my mind to be kind of empty so ideas come in. A lot of things go through my mind, and it's important to bring them out.''

We had borrowed a camcorder for the trip which we'd never used before, nor had we time to experiment with it before the press conference. Much to my dismay, as soon as Yoko walked onto the stage to take her place at the press table, the camcorder's record light went out. I flipped the camera off and back on..it started recording, then stopped again. A sure sign of a dead battery. Luckily, I had a spare battery in the camera case. Unluckily, I didn't know how to make it stick onto the back of the camera. Twice I jammed it there and twice it fell off in my hand. The third time, it fell all the way onto the floor and clunkety-clunked under Keri's seat. So while the Walker Art Center Director was making insightful and informative comments about Yoko and her art, I was bending down trying to find the black battery in the darkened auditorium. Keri finally had to stand up while I got down on my hands and knees and retrieved the thing from under her seat. By some miracle, when I tried to attach it to the camera this time, it latched. Even more miraculously, I didn't miss any of Yoko's Q&A session with the press!

During the press conference, Yoko answered every question put to her with grace, intelligence and wit. Thankfully, no one mentioned the Beatles' breakup, Julian or Paul. Yoko's art was the focus of most of the questions.

PRESS PREVIEW

After the press conference, the media was invited to head downstairs to the gallery where Yoko's art was being displayed. Photos were allowed of the art at this time, so we took full advantage of that. Not long after the press walk-through with Joan Rothfuss and Alexandra Munroe, Yoko came downstairs. She first entered the Blue Room with Jon Hendricks and began writing on the walls. Photographers from the local newspapers quickly crammed into the doorway for the duration of that session.

(Photo left from St. Paul, Minnesota's Pioneer Press. By Jim Gehrz. Marsha Ewing in beige jacket in the left side background waiting to take a photo when Yoko comes back around through AMAZE. Keri Wilson standing next to me at the far left of this photo.)

Yoko then took a little tour of her own through the exhibit. We said hello and I got a few pictures for IK! as she examined some of the pieces and walked through the plexiglas AMAZE. Amazingly enough, when I picked up the next day's St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper, there was a photo of Yoko in AMAZE, with me getting ready to take a picture on the opposite side! So I unwittingly managed to have my photo taken with Yoko for a Twin Cities newspaper!

When she had spent several minutes allowing the media to photograph her, Yoko and the Walker entourage headed for the elevator. Earlier in the day, we had noticed that everytime someone got into the elevator, the doors would close, then a few minutes later, the doors would open and the same people would still be standing there. After it happened to Tom and several other people, it became our little joke to amuse ourselves while we waited for the press conference. Remembering the elevator's strange quirk, I got the digital camera ready to click an "Elevator Piece" photo, but it took so long for anything to happen, I finally put the camera down. Just as I did, the doors opened to reveal Yoko and the Walker group standing there looking out! I still got off a quick photo as the doors were sliding shut again.

"Elevator Piece" Photograph by Marsha Ewing. Yoko and the Walker entourage caught waiting for elevator to go somewhere.

UPDATING IK! FROM MINNEAPOLIS

Tom had brought his laptop computer to Minneapolis so we could update IK! after the press conference. This actually worked and we had a photo from the press conference on the site late that afternoon. It's definitely a new age. In the old days of IK!, these photos and my little story would not have been available to IK! subscribers for weeks - possibly months, depending on when the previous issue had gone out.

The Walker's book and gift store had several Yoko items, including the new "Grapefruit," "Yes Yoko Ono" in both hardcover and paperback, a new item called "Map Piece" which was created this spring, a poster of the apple on clear stand, CD's, the Mike Douglas co-hosting videos and t-shirts from the '93 Walker event, "In the Spirit of Fluxus" which feature a butt from "Bottoms" on the back. As I was gathering things up for this article, it struck me funny when I looked at my receipt for the t-shirts and noticed it was printed out as "Yoko Ono Butt Tshirt...$18.95"

We spent the rest of the time between the press conference and the After Hours Party working on the digital photos, having dinner and meeting up with Phil Biebl and his friend Kevin Grohskopf. It was so strange to finally be standing in the same room with someone who seems so familiar because of years of correspondence, even though we'd never met before in person. Phil was one of the original IK! people when we started the magazine back in the 1980's. He told me that this exhibit is something he'd been waiting 30 years to see.

NEXT....
THE AFTER HOURS PARTY
AND A STRANGE SHOWING OF "RAPE" ...