Reaching Out with No Hands: Reconsidering Yoko Ono

by Lisa Carver

Overview

(Book). John Lennon once described her as "the world's most famous unknown artist: everybody knows her name, but nobody knows what she does." Many people are aware of her art, and her music has always split crowds, from her caterwauling earliest work to her later dance numbers, but how many people have looked at Yoko Ono's decades-spanning career and varied work in total and asked the simple question, "Is it any good?" From her earliest work with the Fluxus group and especially her relationship with John Cage, through her enigmatic pop happenings (where she met John Lennon), her experimental films, cryptic books, conceptual art, and her long recording career that has vacillated between avant-garde noise and proto-new wave, earning the admiration of other artists while generally confusing the public at large who often sees her only in the role of the widow Lennon, Reaching Out with No Hands is the first serious, critical, wide-ranging look at Yoko Ono the artist and musician. A must-read for art and music fans interested in going beyond the stereotyped observations of Yoko as a Lennon hanger-on or inconsequential avant noisemaker.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617134623
Publisher:	Hal Leonard Corporation
Publication date:	08/01/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	154
File size:	267 KB

About the Author

Lisa Carver (Dover, NH) is a writer and performance artist whose legendary fanzine Rollerderby was a catalyst for the Riot Grrl movement. Her books include Drugs Are Nice; The Lisa Diaries: Four Years in the Sex Life of Lisa Carver and Company; and Dancing Queen: A Lusty Look at the American Dream, in which she expounds upon various relics of pop culture past, including Lawrence Welk, roller rinks, and Olivia Newton-John.

Table of Contents

Your Very Name, a Curse 1

What Is Not Yoko Ono 3

Some Pieces 25

There Were Fights 27

Pretty 29

Despair and Loneliness, or, What it Felt Like to Be an Asian Woman Trying to Make Art and Make Her Way in America, 1960 31

Fluxus 33

Devil's Advocate… Except She'd Probably Argue with Him, Too 37

Burning 39

Cut 41

Bag 47

To Lose Is to Save 49

Earthquake Baby 53

Yoko Said… 57

The $3000 Apple 59

Yoko and the Blues 61

Nail 65

What Is the Sound of No Hands Clapping? 69

Just Before the Silence 71

John Backed Her Up When She Said There Was Good in Hitler and Every Living Thing 73

East and West 83

What a Mother Should Be 85

What a Good Voice Hides 89

Proof 91

But Is It Good? 93

Surprise! 95

Like What Your Elbow or Knee Feels Like When You're Thrown Off a Motorcycle and Slide Ten Feet 97

Messing Up the Old Rockers, Shaking Up the Old Rock 99

Live Peace in Toronto, 1969 103

Chuck Berry Was Shocked 105

Bastard 107

Men 109

John Ripped Her Off! 111

A Film Called Rape 113

Equal Opportunity 117

Out 119

Lonely 123

Money 125

A Born Widow 127

Girlfriend 131

People as Art 133

Monster 135

What a Stepmother Should Be 137

Still Making People Mad After All These Years 139

Remember 143

Life Is Beautiful 147

I Just Don't Know What to Say About This 149

Wishing's for Suckers 151

Ambassador of Autism 153

Selected Bibliography 155