The grapefruits team is glad to present the ninth issue
about Yoko Ono and other artists who were inspired or
influenced by her work. Yoko Ono’s book Grapefruit,
published in 1964, has been the namesake for this fanzine, after
Prof. Dr. Swantje Lichtenstein suggested the title for
this zine in 2019.
In her article for this issue, Swantje Lichtenstein writes about
Yoko Ono’s publication Grapefruit. She explains why she
came up with the idea for the title: “The name of this zine can
be considered a transgenerational feminist exchange and their
story. I was able to give some of my feminist experience to younger
feminists and their zine.”[…] Artist Website
Glass is a material often used in Yoko Ono’s artistic work, as
is evident in the exhibition YOKO ONO. MUSIC OF THE
MIND at K20 in Düsseldorf. Furthermore, it is a frequently
used metaphor throughout her songwriting in the context of pop
music, as well as the album title Season of Glass.
[…] Artist Website
Anika performed a cover version of Yoko Ono’s Yang Yang
on her debut album. Her work continues to pick up different threads
of Yoko Ono’s – a political understanding of music, an awareness of
music’s place in the broader planetary context, and the desire to
keep things in flux.
[…] Artist Website
Ka Baird is a performer, sound artist and composer based in New
York. Their work carries a transformative spirit, similar to Yoko
Ono’s œuvre. Ka Baird’s approach to experimental music merges
performance, composition, and improvisation, with the body playing
a central role. Their performances are characterised by immediate,
energetic quality, delivered with a ritualistic intensity that
harnesses both physical exertion and deep mental exploration.
[…] Artist Website
Maria Chávez is an abstract turntablist, DJ and writer on the
notion of the ‘most valuable break’. She creates sound sculptures
of marble and shards of records. While Yoko Ono’s art is an entry
to the ’music of the mind’, Maria Chávez uses chance and failure as
parts of her performative work to create moments of mere
experience.
[…] Artist Website
Sound artist Tomoko Hojo worked with an adaptation of Yoko Ono’s
performative approaches to challenge preconceptions of her cultural
identity. She focused primarily on the absence and suppression of
voices representing female positions and marginalized groups to
make political power imbalances visible. In this way, she appeals
to a reconstruction of prevailing social structures.
[…] Artist Website
Yoko Ono, today? On the exhibition YOKO ONO. MUSIC
OF THE MIND as well as the reception of the artistic
explorations of contemporary artist and illustrator Rina Tsugami,
the topicality and relevance of Yoko Ono’s artistic work are
considered: What does Yoko Ono stand for today in an artistic and
social context?
[…] Artist Website
Yoko Ono’s works WAR IS OVER! IF YOU WANT IT and
Cut Piece can both be seen as a pacifist statement.
Simultaneously, Cut Piece is a feminist statement. The article
draws a line between the topics of pacifism and feminism, at a time
when every one of us is somehow involved in war and the political
concept of peace seems to get old-fashioned or unpopular. War is
not over, but art is neither.
[…] Artist Website
