Springfield Museum.org : Yoko Ono Mend Piece

Yoko Ono, Mend Piece (Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York City version), 1966/2015, ceramic, nontoxic glue, cello tape, scissors, and twine. Dimensions variable. Collection of the Rennie Museum, Vancouver, 2018. Photographed by Blaine Campbell. Installation view, courtesy of the Rennie Collection. © 1966/2015 Yoko Ono.

Exhibit Details

April 9, 2022 - July 10, 2022
Eldredge Gallery

Beginning in April 2022, the Springfield Art Museum invites our visitors to engage with the participatory exhibition, Yoko Ono: Mend Piece (Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York City version), from the Rennie Collection, Vancouver. 

Ono proposes communal mending as an act of healing. In a seemingly simple white room, shattered cups and saucers are placed on a table. Participants are asked to mend the fragments together using common household items: twine, glue, scissors, and tape. The resulting works are displayed on nearby shelves, evidence of the power of collective action.

Yoko Ono (b. 1933, Tokyo, Japan) is widely recognized for her pioneering conceptual art, which has encompassed performance, instruction, film, music, and writing. She also continues to work tirelessly for world peace.

Mend Piece embraces the metaphor of the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi, a technique of repairing broken or cracked pottery using brushstrokes of gold and silver, a philosophy that treats the breakage and repair as part of the object’s history - an important and precious detail, rather than something to disguise. With straightforward directions, the artist asks participants to let go of preconceptions and consider larger ideas: "Mend with wisdom, mend with love./It will mend the earth/at the same time.” 

This exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts (AFA).

The presentation of Yoko Ono's Mend Piece (Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York City version) is part of Art Room, an ongoing series of contemporary art installations organized by the AFA.

Article published on https://www.sgfmuseum.org