hi alex,
all of what you have said as is true. obviously the reviewer doesn't 'get it'
since he doesn't think her doodles worthy of being in the public view. so of
course he cannot understand her music either. as a female artist of the same
age as yoko i know how courageous she was at the very beginning of her work.
and before celebrity she was just 'doing it' even though she was privledged
and well connected. still she was saying something and like helen
frankenthaler, being women theuyhave not had the recognition that was
afforded males in the same group.
i don't think it would be very easy to do ones art in the insanity of such
celebrity let alone anything else; it's got to be really weird. and of course
her art will always be associated with that celebrity so that is tough i
should think for her. so the hell with kimmelman, i think she is excellent.
bests, carol :)
Alex Cook wrote:
>
> >
> > The music is unbearable, and let's leave it at that. The films,
> >however, include her best achievements. Lennon collaborated and
> >acted. They sometimes extended what she had already done: "Film No.
> >5 (Smile)," in which he simply smiles at the camera in slow motion,
> >is connected with her earlier sculpture "A Box of Smile." For
> >"Rape" (it's not in the exhibition but will be screened at Japan
> >Society), a camera crew followed an unsuspecting woman into her
> >apartment, to her mounting alarm. Like "Cut Piece" it was about
> >violation, but now Ms. Ono's and her husband's celebrity was the
> >obvious subtext.
> >
>
> Nice review ,except for one thing. Why are reviewers so ready to call her
> music unbearable? Why can't they take the high road and give it the
> "challenging" moniker, like how people describe Lou Reed's "Metal Machine
> Music?" His is a comparable story - an interesting artist in his own right
> who became famous by association with an already famous artist, Warhol in
> his case. But his "challenging" records are classics in critical circles.
> And his arguably lame records ("The Bells") are just part of the master's
> ouvre. Is it because she's a woman? Is it because she is viewed as having
> broken up the Beatles?
>
> I checked out the Ono box from the library once to really get a feel for
> what her music was about. There are definite hits ("Plastic Ono Band") and
> misses (some of the more dated hippie-rock things that I don't remember the
> title of) but I think its a stretch to call any of it unbearable. It seems
> dismissive rather than critical.
>
> I'm not saying her work needs to be handled with kid gloves because she is
> "poor Yoko." I would just like to see her art treated seriously.
>
> Alex
>
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--
carol starr
taos, new mexico, usa
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
