Imagine Peace

I have always sort of loved Yoko Ono. I can't put my finger on why that is. I think she is a talented artist, and I am intrigued that she manages to be simultaneously idealistic and unsentimental. I am one of the people who believes that John Lennon was undoubtedly better (not worse) for loving her. My first Halloween in New York I was Yoko for Halloween, and a guy at a party said, "Everybody hates Yoko Ono." Of course I replied "Everybody hates you." But what I should have said was, "Not everybody hates Yoko. I like her. Even her weird dying cat music is interesting to me. I like her. Now fuck off and get me a drink."

Her newest work, the Peace Tower in Reykjavik, is pretty spectacular. She actually had the idea for this work over 30 years ago. It is meant to symbolize a lighthouse and a beacon for peace. When John Lennon met Yoko, he had read about her idea for a "tower of prisms" and he asked her if she could build it. She said no, she did not know how. So obviously it is dedicated to him and his pacifist dreams (blah blah blah just like almost everything Yoko does these days..) but if you can get past that part it it is really pretty amazing just aesthetically. My favorite weird detail is that Yoko has collected Peace Wishes from people all around the world which she is burying in a capsule at the foot of the tower. It's not that I don't believe in the message-I think it is beautiful symbolically as well as physically. I just sort of wish she could have done it for herself and her own conviction. She was always as much of a pacifist as John, but she never gets any credit. And really, if it's not credit/recognition, what is the motivation to fight for peace?

http://www.imaginepeace.com/tower.html

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