Yoko Ono's reply in the Oct. 9, 1971 Post-Standard to the letter of John Findley:
"Yoko Explains Her Art: Bored With Artists Who Make Big Lumps"
To the editor of The Post Standard:
Reply to John Findley’s letter (oct 7):
Many people believe that in this age, art is dead. They despise the artists who show in galleries and are caught in the traditional art world. Artists themselves are beginning to lose their confidence. They don’t know whether they are doing something that still has value in this dying age where the social problems are so vital and critical.
I wondered myself about this. Why am I still an artist? Why am I not joining the violent revolutionaries? Then I realized that destruction was not my game. Violent revolutionaries are trying to destroy the establishment. That is good. But how? By killing? Killing is such an artless thing. All you need is a Coke bottle in your hand and you can kill. But people who kill that way most often become the next establishment after they'’ve killed the old. Because they are using the same method that the old establishment used to destroy. Violent revolutionaries’ thinking is very close to establishment-type thinking and ways of solving problems.
I like to fight the establishment by using methods that are so far removed from establishment-type thinking that the establishment doesn’t know how to fight back. For instance, they cannot stamp out John and Yoko events: "Two Virgins," "Bad Peace," "Acorn Peace" and "War is Over Poster."
Artists are not here to destroy or to create. "Creativity" is just as simple and artless a thing to do as "destroying." Everyone on earth has creativity – a housewife can create a baby. Children are just as creative as the people who society considers artists. Creative artists are just good enough to be considered children. Artists must not create more objects, the world is full of everything it needs.
I’m bored with artists who make big lumps of sculpture and occupy a big space with them and think they have done something "creative." And allow people nothing but to applaud the lump. That is sheer narcissism. Why don’t they at least let people touch them? Money and space are wasted on such projects when there are people starving and people who don’t have enough place(sic) to sleep or breathe.
The job of an artist is not to destroy but to change the value of things. And by doing that, artists can change the world into a utopia where there is total freedom for everybody. That can be achieved only when there is total communication in the world. Total communication equals peace. That is our aim. That is what artists can do for the world!
In order to change the value of things you’ve got to know the situation of the world. You have to be more than a child.
That is the difference between a child’s work and an artist’s work. That is the difference between an artist’s work and a murderer’s work. We are artists. Artist is just a frame of mind. Anybody can be an artist. It doesn’t involve having a talent. It involves only having a certain frame of mind, an attitude of determination and imagination that springs naturally out of the necessity of the situation.
I understand that Picasso confessed his con. He was never an artist who took intiative in changing the world. He may have felt guilty about it. On the other hand, he may have been facetitious in labeling what he did as con. I differentiate myself from other conceptual artistrs by calling my art Con Art — but that that does not mean con in a sense of lying. Con laid outright as obvious con is not a con. It’s something to do with dream-making. What Picasso said about Art(sic) being dead is true, too. Any Art that can’t relate itself to society is dead. Art is communication. Communication is Art.
Example of today’s living artists:
There was a temple in Japan called the Golden temple. A man loved it very much as it was, and he couldn’t stand the thought of anything happening to it. He felt the only way he could stop anything from happening to it was to burn it down, and he did. Now, the image of the temple was able to stay forever in his mind as a perfect form.
There was a man who made a counterfeit 1,000 yen. It circulated with no trouble at all. The man traveled to another city and circulated another counterfeit 1,000 yen. If he had made lots of counterfeit money he could have been discovered right away. But he wasn’t interested in making lots of money. He wanted to have fun and play a simple game. The police went wild and announced that if anybody found a counterfeit 1,000 yen they would get 2,000 yen as a reward if they came to the police station. This man changed the value of money with his actions.
In this very same sense, we have artists today whose works move beyond the gallery space and help change the world: Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Paul Krassner, for instance, and many others. They reach something that is sensitive and artistic in a very renaissance sense, when the majority of so-called artists these days are hard-core businessmen. Message is the medium. There are only two classes left in our society: The class who communicates and the class who doesn’t. Tomorrow, I hope there will be just one. Total communication equals peace.
"Men can destroy, women can create, Artists Revalue"
Yoko Ono Lennon
PS – I agree! – John Ono Lennon
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