Hit In the Head

I was having one of those days. Maybe it was one of those weeks. Maybe it was a month. Maybe it was one of those phases. Those times when you make plans and then wake up in the morning and want to cancel them. Those times when you make plans to do things that sound interesting and can't muster the enthusiasm to see it through or you get there and realize it's just okay. Stuck, bored, uninspired. I'm not going. Out. And your friend talks to you on the phone and says, "stop, we're going". And you know that exactly what you need is to let someone you trust take control of your decision making for one moment instead of playing the "I Will Listen to Myself" game. And it works. I made it to the Berkeley Art Museum on a gray sunday for the one of the last few days of the Yoko Ono exhibit.

I have little knowledge of her art. I know the story of how she and John met (look it up if you don't know it). I have seen bits and pieces and always found her intriguing. The retrospective consisted predominantly of the instruction paintings from her 1964 book "Grapefruit". There were some glass cases which I do not recall distinctly and the telephone, which I believe is commonplace at yoko exhibits. If the phone should ring, you should answer, for it will be she.

The walls were painted a lovely baby blue with white text. Apparently my photos are a copyright violation (got in a wee bit of trouble). In order to make the images legible I had to unforgivably uglify them, so I will not post any of them. Instead I will quote.

Cloud Piece

Imagine the clouds dripping,
Dig a hole in your garden
to put them in.


Mirror Piece

Instead of obtaining a mirror,
obtain a person
Look into him
Use different people.
Old, young, fat, small, etc,

The Yoko Ono exhibit was nicely complemented by the Bruce Nauman exhibit of some of his early works that we saw afterward. He has a good sense of humor. "Self Portrait as a Fountain" made me giggle and all who know me know I enjoy giggling. I also hear that he is important and influential, but my story will end here. The photo was taken at BAM/PFA and is not related to any of the aforementioned artists. Also, when we went to look at the asian art, M fell over in a paroxysm of hunger, so we had to race off to eat chili cheese fries served in a giant bucket.