Author(s): Cordelia McPhie
Mentor(s): Heather Belnap
Institution BYU
Long before her infamous Bed-In honeymoon and peace-promoting music, Yoko Ono was breaking artistic conventions with her instruction pieces—artworks that require audience participation to be fully realized. In the early 1960s, before her association with the Beatles, Ono was deeply involved in conceptual and communal art processes, both within and outside the Fluxus art movement. Unlike a traditional solo artist, she invites participants to become co-creators, emphasizing the fleeting, emotional, and individualized experiences her art provokes rather than the permanence of a finished object. Freed from concerns about longevity, Ono prioritizes “the music of the mind” over conventional displays like canvases on walls. Despite her innovative contributions, popular culture has long overshadowed her art with labels tied to her personal life—“home-wrecker,” “band-destroyer,” and other reductive stereotypes. Unlike male artists, whose work is often separated from their identities, female artists like Ono are frequently defined by gender or relationships rather than their artistry. Using a selection of Ono’s early instruction pieces, I argue that reevaluating her art independently of the reputations imposed upon her reveals a selfless creative process that enables participants to find their own artistry. Her work’s value lies not in the fame of her associations but in its ability to transform audiences into collaborators. A more objective view of Ono’s art allows for a refreshed understanding of her legacy, one that recognizes her contributions as groundbreaking and deeply human rather than solely as the appendage of prominent men.