News Yoko Ono Needs ‘harmed’ Women For A New Art Installation

[ms spock]

I am going to do it so I thought some others here might like to be involved.

The full callout, written all in caps, was posted by Ono on September 6. “WOMEN OF ALL AGES, FROM ALL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD: YOU ARE INVITED TO SEND A TESTAMENT OF HARM DONE TO YOU FOR BEING A WOMAN,” it reads. “WRITE YOUR TESTAMENT IN YOUR OWN LANGUAGE, IN YOUR OWN WORDS, AND WRITE HOWEVER OPENLY YOU WISH. YOU MAY SIGN YOUR FIRST NAME IF YOU WISH, BUT DO NOT GIVE YOUR FULL NAME.”

More Information here:

Yoko Ono needs ‘harmed’ women for a new art installation

 

[Hope69]

Interesting proposal.

 

[Deleted member 29920]

:cool::) thanks for posting this @Ms Spock

 

[PTSDfree]

I wouldn't say that my trauma happened because I'm female, but I get what she's saying.

 

[hodge]

Wow, good for you, Spock! I'll think about it. My first name is very unusual, so I'm kind of hesitant. However, all my friends know I have PTSD. I'm just not sure I want to reveal one of my specific traumas.

 

[Sideways]

Anything that helps anyone feel like they have regained some power, anything that helps us feel like we aren't silenced? Like it a lot. You're awesome Ms Spock:)

 

[sedna]

Im not sure how I feel about this one.

The current culture and generation here ( generally & USA ) is culturally past the idea that your'e a victim based on being female, theres more focus on labeling the perpetrator and what his or her problem was .
Also , there are a few other gender identities now .
Its hard for me to picture Yoko ono being a victim because she's a woman, the general public opinion is that she's made that really work for her, but I dont know anything really.
this is what happens when i think about
something after too much caffeine, sorry.
Sounds interesting and positive as an affirmation! Good for you Spock! thanks for posting this.

 

[joeylittle]

The current culture and generation here ( generally & USA ) is culturally past the idea that your'e a victim based on being female, theres more focus on labeling the perpetrator and what his or her problem was .
Also , there are a few other gender identities now .

This is kind of true, and kind of irrelevant. I would say this could hold true for millenials in first world nations. But there are plenty of women alive of Ono's generation int the US who would have easily experienced harm simply from being female. And - just in the states - there are still women who are harmed for the simple truth of being a female. I'm pretty sure my most recent rapist wouldn't have attacked a man. I don't mean to be crass, but it's the truth.

That's just talking about the US. Globally, which is how far this project is reaching, issues continue to be incredibly, frighteningly relevant.

I'm revealing some old-school feminist roots here, but when we are culturally past the idea that you're a victim based on being female, that's gonna be a good day. There are still generations of people alive and in power who would not agree that women are even entitled to equal pay for equal work. Or that they should have an equal say in their marriage. Or that their reproductive rights belong to them, not to any deity. All of this can create a situation of harm as well.

She said this, about the piece, and I appreciate it:

I think it is always important that we reach other women. After I did this, I thought, “Did I forget about men?” But let’s do women first, because women have really been in trouble for over 2000 years. All that time, there was a male society. So, we just have to hear what women had to go through.

http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/?p=15615

It doesn't mean that men don't matter, or other-gendered persons don't matter. It's just not what this piece is about, is all.

It's scheduled for Reykjavik Museum, very soon - early October. It debuted (I think) in Japan in 2013; was at the venice biennial in 2014. I'm not sure if it's ever been installed in the states.

This is a good description of the whole piece:

Arising is a multi-media installation—a single piece comprised of video, sculpture, sound, photos of eyes, and the written testaments from hundreds of anonymous women. On a flat screen mounted between two windows a video plays of a dozen or more human shapes burning like a pyre of corpses in a funerary ceremony. In the center of the gallery space, in front of the video, a mound of life-size female figures—perhaps the remains from the pyre—are piled up on a parquet wood floor. Far more realistic than mannequins, these lifeless bodies are covered with an ashen dust and encrusted with scales of a coppery green patina in an open mass grave. Testaments line two long walls from floor to ceiling and a polite Queen Anne table and chair sit at one end—a place for women to add their own narratives, if they are so inclined.

deborahgavel.com - BLOG - Yoko Ono: ARISING

 

[sedna]

This is kind of true, and kind of irrelevant. I would say this could hold true for millenial...

@joeylittle I agree with your comment on my post, for the most part, actually.

It was somewhat driven by overthinking from coffee and suspicion of yoko ono in general.
I need to learn that if I'm mentioning coffee in a comment then its a sign I should wait or edit.

I've been targeted as a woman and Im also a rape victim and a DV survivor.

I think I was responding to the idea that you're a potential victim beforehand just because youre a woman.

Im not a millenial, my mothers generation was the feminist movement though. I was only voicing my opinion of the culture in the USA , not globally or including religious cultures.
I dont agree , even as a woman targeted for violent crimes myself, twice by a stranger, that being female was the issue. I think it perpetuates a mentality thats a little off the mark. Only in our culture though.
My rapist wouldnt have targeted me if I werent a woman also.
My college friend wouldnt have been beaten and mugged in NYC if he werent 5'6 and a 130lbs. probably either.

I didnt meant to sound negative about the projects concept as whole or try to discredit it.

I just wanted to explain where my thoughts went before my comment,
You're right it was irrelevant!

 

[joeylittle]

t was somewhat driven by overthinking from coffee and suspicion of yoko ono in general.

:D

I have a soft spot for Yoko. Even though she is often a punchline, some of her work is really very good. I think she would have had a career with or without John Lennon, though there's no denying that she gained a level of notoriety through being with him, and notoriety is the preferred currency in the "performance art for social awakening" realm.

I think I was responding to the idea that you're a potential victim beforehand just because youre a woman.

No, I get that. The broadest level of the truth is that anyone is a potential victim, of anything. And (if I remember right) you work with underserved communities, so you see a broader spectrum than most - I didn't mean to imply that you didn't understand abuse from your own, personal perspective.

I think I'm just slightly on the other side of the fence, maybe because of my own experiences. But I do take your point. It's why her quote was important. Most of her work is gendered, and about gender politics specifically - so, for the women who have experienced harm or are experiencing harm because of their status as 'woman', she's providing an outlet and a voice.

I'd be just as supportive about the same project being driven by a transperson to talk about trans stories, or even a man to capture the ways the imposed male identity can cause them harm. Since I'm a woman who has been harmed by men, and being a woman had to do with why they attacked me, specifically - for they had no other information - I wanted to speak for the relevance, is all.

I just wanted to explain where my thoughts went before my comment,
You're right it was irrelevant!

:D Naw, this is how threads happen. And I really do appreciate the clarification, and see where you are coming from on it.

 

[Freedomfighter]

I am going to do it so I thought some others here might like to be involved.

The full callout, written...

Yes indeed, that is interesting and leaves me hopeful that some recognize the suffering that is out there. Yoko has always been on a controversial edge but has always pulled through to accomplish what she believed in.

 

[Friday]

You know... I didn't believe sexism existed here, still, when I was 17. Then I joined a boys club. And, I'll tell ya, it wasn't the men I served with who made my life hard. It was Congress. Who kept passing laws making it illegal for me to do my job. It wasn't about my ability. I was already doing the job. I was already working twice as hard, 10 times as hard, in order to keep it. It wasn't about my not being accepted by my peers. When I got kicked to the curb, they were the ones who fought to keep me in the unit, in a different capacity. There was no reason on gods green earth for me to have been pulled from my job. I'd competed -using the same standards as the men- to get it. I'd fought to keep it. I earned the right to be there. But a bunch of f*cks on Capitol Hill decided women shouldn't work that job. And not only did no one batt an eye, in this country, people who have never met me, never met the other women in our jobs, didn't know the standards we had to compete against (and yeah, it's f*cking hard to physically compete against men) were the exact same as the men in our position... Start spouting a bunch of bullshit about how women aren't capable. Aren't f*cking capable? I've been proving my goddamn capability for years.

Yeah, there's clearly a whole lot of more in your face shit, when you're a chick in the military. And not being allowed to work a job doesn't even begin to compare against the institutionalized violence against women that's hugely and disgustingly present worldwide. But something so fundamental as our own government enacting laws to prevent women from even trying to earn a job? I don't think there's anything more basic of "You're a woman, so f*ck you." I've ever experienced outside of the Middle East.