Interview: Yoko Ono on her Newcastle visit

Dec 15 2008 By David Whetstone, The Journal

Between the sky and my head, at Baltic until March 15

JOHN Lennon once told reporters: “We’re humorists; we’re Laurel & Hardy, that’s John and Yoko.” This was after their famous ‘bed-in’, when they took to their bed in an Amsterdam hotel in a campaign for world peace.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised at the humour in Yoko’s exhibition at the Baltic, even if the themes it deals with are also patently serious.

Outside the building you will see the Coffin Car, a Daimler hearse in which you can book a ride. It’s inscribed: “Ride a coffin car all over the city. Yoko Ono, 1962.”

OK, so the humour is rather black. But there’s jollier stuff to be found inside.

We’re All Water consists of a row of jars of water, each labelled with the name of a famous person: Henri Matisse, Fidel Castro, Max Ernst, 50 Cents. There’s a blank jar which you can name yourself.

Amaze is a maze of see-through plastic. Two people are allowed in at a time and it’s probably best not to run. If you do, you risk blunting your nose, as a succession of children demonstrated yesterday.

You are invited to leave a wish on the wish trees or a message to or about your mother. Someone had written: “Well, she was meant to be here but ‘Strictly’ was on and the weather was awful. That happens a lot. So she’s taught me to be your own person.”

There are installations involving stepladders and mounds of earth and white nylon ropes anchored to look like the rays of the sun.

To appreciate some exhibits you have to squint through a peephole, as in Bastet, 1990, which comprises “45 patinated bronze cats, granite, electrical wiring. light bulbs”. Peep through the holes – one just inches off the ground – and the result is startling and eerie.

There are a series of meticulous drawings done over a period of years which show a side of the artist most of us don’t know. This is delicate, appealing and introspective.

On the other hand, there is Fly, which shows flies buzzing over a naked female body and seems designed to shock.

There is a new piece for Gateshead, Discarded Culture 2008, which features an untidy pile of 1,000 second hand books and two framed photographs – one showing fascist book burning and the other two children gazing at a huge TV. It’s self-explanatory.

Children should enjoy the exhibition because there are things to do. They can take part in Mending Piece which invites you to “think of mending the world” while you mend a broken cup or saucer. It is not overly intellectual.

Godfrey Worsdale, the new director of Baltic, said: “This is a very substantial exhibition by a very substantial artist and it is still being formed. Yoko was very inspired by what she has seen here and wanted to make a new work.”

He added: “Baltic still has a small percentage of its visitors from overseas but a show like this will certainly bring people from all over and a lot of the audience will be new to contemporary art because they know of Yoko as a media figure. It will be fantastic in developing new audiences for us.”