yoko ono / touch me

By luke kurtis

26 Aug 2008

"Nothing short of the softest word can reach me now.

Nothing but the warmest heart can touch me now."

--from "Will You Touch Me" by Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono's exhibition touch me opened on 18 April 2008 at Galerie Lelong in NYC. Never one to miss a Yoko show within striking distance (the woman is prolific--she has had/will have shows in Japan; Germany; Los Angeles; NYC; and Lewisburg, PA in 2008 alone!), I was sure to attend the opening. With perfect timing, I arrived at exactly the same time as Ms. Ono herself. No matter how many times I've seen her dart in and out of a gallery or concert venue, her diminutive yet powerful presence never fails to put a smile on my face. Here's a woman who has weathered a good quarter century of love and war and everything in between. Through it all she has somehow managed to retain a childlike innocence yet carries the heartfelt wisdom of a weathered old crone.

In touch me, her first show in NYC since 2003's Odyssey of a Cockroach, Yoko presents a small selection of works old and new, all thematically surrounding the experience of the contemporary woman. For Yoko Ono the feminist era is alive and well.

The exhibition's title piece appears in three movements, scores not unlike those found in her landmark composition Grapefruit. Ono invites visitors to participate in this birth-like dance and asks you to put body parts through vaginal like openings in a canvas that spans the room. On the other side of the canvas, gallery attendants photograph your performance which you then, in part two, pin to the gallery wall. In part three you douse your fingers in a fount and touch compartmentalized parts of a woman's body. At the end of the evening Yoko drapes the body, putting her to rest.

This compartmentalization and obscuring is a running motif throughout the exhibition in Vertical Memory's conceptual photography and Memory Paintings' concealed portraits. But where there is a covering up there must also be a revelation. The famous Cut Piece (both the 1964 and 2003 versions) are shown to not only emphasize the performative aspects of the exhibition but also to uncover the plight of modern women in a starling yet direct manner.

Other pieces in the show include Sky TV and a sculpture from Family Album (Blood Objects).