The practice of Japanese artist Yoko Ono (b. 1933) has always been rooted in paper: neat instructions, typed or handwritten on card or paper. Many of her works are like musical scores, meant to prompt a performance. In the New York 1960s art scene, Ono understood, like her colleague John Cage, that art could be anything – an apple, a dance, a statement. Take Cloud Piece (1963-64): ‘Imagine the clouds dripping. Dig a hole in your garden to put it in.’
The catalogue for the Tate show ‘Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind’ (15 Feb – 1 Sep 2024) was designed by A Practice for Everyday Life (Apfel), the London studio founded by Kirsty Carter and Emma Thomas.
‘We are massive fans of Fedrigoni papers,’ says Carter. ‘Nearly all our publications use them.’ The uncoated stock feels appropriate for the complex twists and turns of Ono’s oeuvre, which in addition to work on paper is documented by LP covers, film stills and photos of events, including her notorious Bed-In for Peace (1969) with the Beatles’ John Lennon. The colour photos include the participatory Add Colour (Refugee Boat), a concept from 1960 (realised 2016), that is still sadly relevant more than six decades later.