YOKO ONO Herstory

YOKO ONO
"Herstory"
FINE ART RAFAEL VOSTELL
Knesebeckstr. 30, 10623 Berlin
Mo. - Fr. 11.00 a.m. - 7.00 p.m., Sa. 11.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m.
until June 23 rd , 2001
http://www.vostell.de
The gallery FINE ART RAFAEL VOSTELL, Berlin, is pleased to invite you within the
programmatic focus on FLUXUS and CONCEPTUAL ART, after having realized the
installation “Freight Train” on the Schloßplatz in Berlin-Mitte last summer, to a further
contact with the artwork of YOKO ONO.
YOKO ONO already in the sixties worked together with the later Fluxus pioneers, like
George Maciunas and John Cage, with striking conceptual performances and artworks.
The legendary Instruction Paintings offer a wonderful insight into the artwork of Yoko
Ono. In “Smoke Painting” (1960), for example, a canvas painted with food leftovers
from the performance “Kitchen Piece”, was burned and went up in smoke. The actual
painting is performed through the observation of the smoke which rises from the
canvas. Yoko Ono's works picture a kind of "meta language" - the reality in between
the lines.
In our solo exhibition entitled "YOKO ONO Herstory" we show different objects from
the series "Bronze Age" out of the late 80ties. We also present a selection of drawings,
ink on paper, from the series "Franklin Summer" (2000), the famous installation "Play It
By Trust" (1966/97) and the conceptual work "Vertical Memory" (1997), which has
been translated the first time into German. Especially this work transforms the female
view on history into a “herstory”. The digital combination of the three portraits of Yoko
Ono´s father, her husband John Lennon and her son Sean is an allegory for the
informal perception of history. The respective texts to each of the 21 similar iris prints
are performing the change from a horizontal perspective into a vertical standpoint.
Every single part, composed of a printed portrait and a short text, internally effects this
change of movement. The artwork is created by the act of investigation and
understanding.
At the moment a comprehensive retrospective show entitled "YES YOKO ONO" is
taking place in the USA, Canada and Asia and gives once more rise to the discussion
about activity and creativeness of the artist. The accompanying catalogue with many
pictures, documents and texts gives a complete overview about the artwork of Yoko
Ono. Her art is an art of perception, which is able to tell or to be told stories of life -
meaning a female story.

A new catalogue appears to the exhibition "Herstory" with texts from YOKO ONO
translated into German.
We friendly thank the BEWAG, Berlin as well as Jörg Starke, Berlin and Jon Hendricks,
New York, who helped to realize the show.