A concise introduction to the vast career of an era-defining artist
As a pioneering conceptual artist, performance artist, film-maker, poet,
musician, writer and peace activist for over five decades, Yoko Ono
(born 1933) has influenced several generations of artists, musicians and
cultural workers across the globe. Throughout her career, Ono has
explored an incredible range of media, coining new kinds of artistic
genres--most notably with her instruction pieces, which she began making
in the 1950s and continues to devise today. Yoko Ono: To the Light
accompanies the artist's major 2012 overview at the Serpentine Gallery
in London (a city to which she has longstanding ties). In her
introduction, Ono explains the book and show's title: "We are now at the
13th hour, facing the future together in which we may destroy ourselves
or go on to create our heaven on earth. For the Serpentine Gallery, I
selected pieces which had the strongest vibration to take us to the
light." In accord with this utopian emphasis, Ono is also presenting
#smilesfilm, a worldwide participatory project, as part of her
exhibition. Conceived as a way of connecting people across the world,
users are invited to upload images of their smiles via Twitter and
Instagram, creating a global string of smiles. Included in this volume
are reproductions of installations, films and performances, plus
archival material relating to several key early works. Yoko Ono: To the
Light is a concise introduction to the vast scope of this era-defining
artist's many endeavors.
