Yoko Ono's exhibition "WATER SOURCE" held at Gallery 360 degrees in Tokyo. It is a combination of 2 sections showing her fundamental ideas which are water, light and love. The first section features two walls with participatory works called "TIME TO TELL YOUR LOVE" and "MY MOMMY　IS　BEAUTIFUL". In the second section, sparkling prisms titled "LIGHT HOUSE" were floating in the dark, which is the second time to be installed since 1966, London.

Express yourself and be a part of Ono's art

When I entered the gallery, I was asked to participate in her works. It was the participation art titled "TIME TO TELL YOUR LOVE". For this work, the gallerist will a picture of you while you were posing in a very special and interesting way with your friends or family whom you came with. Visitors are showing their relation and love by performing in front of a camera.

For the wall "MY MOMMY IS BEAUTIFUL", one can bring a photo of their own mother and then write a short text about her. In this text, visitors can describe about their own mother as well as the experience they shared with their mother.

The important part is that the visitor is asked to think about these questions: "Why is my mother beautiful to me? What does my mother really mean to me? What makes her so special to me?" . And then, it is important to write your thoughts down to make them part of the whole image about why mothers are such important people to us all.

These two participatory works illustrate in a very good way how Yoko Ono's art expresses itself. At first, one can hardly guess what Ono's art wants the visitor to experience. Hence, some may consider her art to be unfinished, maybe not even a piece of art. But the fact is, this type of Ono's work reflects her aspiration that the pieces will be constantly transformed by viewers, either physically or in a purely conceptual way. Also it is important to know and understand that Ono's works are always pervading the themes of love and peace.

"LIGHT HOUSE" revived but still Ono's imagination is far beyond our technology.

Moving to the second section, there is a sparkling light floating in the dark. This work is created by lightening the little three-sided pyramid prism glasses placed in a transparent acryl box. As this work is located in the middle of a dark room, a beautiful and colorful pattern appears and decorates the surrounding walls.

Yoko Ono explains the "LIGHT HOUSE" in the following way:

"The light house is a phantom house that is built by sheer light. You set up prisms at a certain time of day, under a certain evening light that goes through the prisms; the light house appears in the middle of the field like an image. With this image, you can actually go inside, if you want to. The light house may not emerge every day, just as the sun doesn't shine every day."

(Ono 1965, rewritten for Lisson gallery, London 1967).

Close up of the prisms of "LIGHT HOUSE" by Yoko Ono.

According to the gallery owner, the light house in this exhibition is one of several remakes from the original concept of Ono. Ono wrote her concept of the light house in 1965. At this point, she did believe that this concept could become reality one day, but she wasn't completely convinced about that. John Lennon whom she met at Indica Gallery in 1966 was so fascinated by her concept of light house and asked her to build one for him. Although it was technologically impossible to realize it, she decided to re-write her concept for her Lisson Gallery show in London in 1967 and showed this light house.

40 years have passed since then and she decided to show this work again with the new technology. Prisms were cut more precisely and lights are carefully settle below just only to illuminate the prisms and no other area. Another thing you should know about "LIGHT HOUSE" is that it is the original model of "IMAGINE PEACE TOWER" built in Iceland, 2007. But still, we can't go inside of the house built by light with our technology. Ono's imagination is always far beyond ours.

"WATER SOURCE" reminds us to think of our roots

The imagination of Yoko Ono's light house can also be combined with the main term of this exhibition "WATER SOURCE": The water changes it's form into light and this light shines so bright until it reaches the sky.

If one goes further and explores this exhibition the meaning of  the exhibition title "WATER SOURCE" is going to be revealed.

It starts with one of Yoko Ono's poems called "WE Are All WATER".

"You are water. I'm also water. We are all water in our own vessel. That's why it's so easy to meet. Someday we'll evaporate together. Even when water evaporated, we may say "I am there. That vessel is I." by pointing the vessel. We are guard mans of the vessels. Written for the "HALF A WIND" show at Lisson Gallery, London in 1967. When we are all water, what is our source? One answer must be our mother. That is why "MY MOMMY IS BEAUTIFUL" was also installed in this exhibition. "WATER SOURCE" reminds us to think of our roots again.

"WE Are All WATER" written by Yoko Ono

Those words from a poet seep almost automatically into our hearts. Just like water. Ono sees us as water. Water behaves like love too as water and love always change their shapes. Although they may be colorless and transparent, at the same time they define themselves with an absolute presence.
Actually, one realizes that it is something that gushes out from the deep bottom of our hearts.

Ono's idea is as simple as brilliant: In our so often stressful lives we have the tendency to forget about this important thing and also often taking our love ones for granted. Her works give the visitor the chance to look inward for a moment and think about their roots again.

text by Stefanie Mühlberger

Exhibition Info
"WATER SOURCE"
date: Dec 10, 2012 - Jan 26, 2013
place: Gallery 360 degree
address: 5-1-27-2F, Minamiaoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
website: http://www.360.co.jp