![]() ![]() One that is about counting stars ends with “this can be done with windows instead of stars”. Many of the pieces engage in relativization. Instead of showing the meaninglessness of life, such as the absurd theater of the 1950s and 60s with Samuel Beckett among others, Yoko Ono is positive in spirit. In the same year, Britain has its last execution (which was by hanging), the last Jim Crow laws are repealed in the US, and in Norway the right to free religious practice enshrined in the Constitution. “Common sense prevents you from thinking” “Grapefruit” was first published in 1964. For example, where you have to let 500 people think of the same phone number at the same time, and then let everyone in the city think of the word “yes” at the same time, and then: “do so the whole world thinks all the time”. The concept is fundamentally democratic, and the cultivation of the collective can be found in several places in the book. They are simply the script for shorter performances. Illustration: From “Grapefruit” by Yoko Ono / Kolon publishing house The idea behind the “pieces” – translated from “event scores” – is that any person can create the work by performing it (such as “music scores”, ie sheet music). “Grapefruit” has a poetic dimension that is not always to be found in conceptual artists, not even those of the time. It is also very sensual, with tearing, touching, peeling, peeking, opening and closing. We read about snow, pieces of glass, moons, skies, whispers, dripping and melting. The aesthetics are generally pure and ethereal. Thematic lines, and repetitive form, create a sense of context. It is a mixture of pieces, poems, theoretical texts, drawings – and more. Illustration: From “Grapefruit” by Yoko Ono / Kolon publishing house A sensual community The book was written and published in stages throughout the 1960s. The drawing (which is incredibly nice!) Shows a world encapsulated in a glass ampoule. A drawing at the very beginning encourages the reader to such an opening. Yoko Ono’s absurd twists of reality have an opening effect – you get the feeling that anything is possible. Equally important is that the thought experiments are stimulating. They are playful and underlying, and put the world in a new light. Illustration: From “Grapefruit” by Yoko Ono / Kolon publishing house Most of the “pieces” are very funny. Encouragement for whimsical – often physically impossible – deeds, which do not seem to have any function or benefit beyond being derived from a curiosity. Anything can happen “Grapefruit” consists mainly of short instructions to the reader of the type “look at the sun until it is square”. In a time marked by an underlying sense that the inevitable is coming to an end, the imagination can be a potent antidote. ![]() As translator Simen Hagerup mentions in the afterword: It is not just-just imagining another world. It makes up most of the written work of the Japanese-American artist Yoko Ono, who was married to John Lennon. The book is both a collection of poems and concept art. This is the instructions in Yoko Ono’s legendary “Grapefruit” from 1964, which has finally been translated into Norwegian. Build a house that screams when the wind blows. ![]()
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