In late 1960, Yoko Ono opened her downtown Manhattan loft as a place for experimental music and intermedia events. From December 1960 through June 1961, composer La Monte Young organized a concert series there, helping connect Ono to a growing network of avant-garde artists and audiences. This DIY setting became an early platform for the participatory approach that would define her performances and “instruction” works.
In 1961, Ono wrote Voice Piece for Soprano, a short score that instructs a performer to “scream” in different directions (such as against the wind or the sky). The work shows how Ono treated performance as something that could be triggered by a simple written prompt. It also points toward her later interest in audience participation and the expressive body.
In July 1961, Ono presented "Paintings & Drawings of Yoko Ono" at George Maciunas’s AG Gallery in New York. The show helped formalize her “instruction painting” idea—art that exists as directions for actions or imagined outcomes, not just objects. It also strengthened her collaboration with Maciunas, a key figure in the emerging Fluxus network.
In 1964, Ono published the first edition of Grapefruit in Japan through her Wunternaum Press. The book compiled more than 150 “instruction works” across categories like Music, Painting, Event, Poetry, and Object. By putting these scores into print, Ono made her performance logic portable—any reader could become a performer by following the text.
On July 20, 1964, Ono first performed Cut Piece at Yamaichi Concert Hall in Kyoto. Sitting still with scissors placed in front of her, she invited audience members to cut away pieces of her clothing. The work made the viewer’s choices central to the event, turning participation into the artwork’s emotional and ethical core.
On August 11, 1964, Ono performed Cut Piece again in Tokyo at Sogetsu Kaikan Hall. Repeating the work in a new venue emphasized that her performance was not a fixed object but a structure that changes with context and audience behavior. The Tokyo performance also helped link her event-scores to Japan’s experimental art and music scene.
On March 21, 1965, Ono performed Cut Piece at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York during New Works of Yoko Ono. The New York version was filmed by Albert and David Maysles, helping the work circulate beyond those physically in the room. Documentation like this mattered for performance art, which often survives through film and photographs rather than durable objects.
On June 27, 1965, Ono performed Bag Piece during Perpetual Fluxfest in New York. In this work, the performer is covered by a large bag, disrupting easy assumptions about identity, gender, or status. Like Cut Piece, it used a simple setup to shift attention from spectacle to the participant’s experience and the audience’s imagination.
On September 9–10, 1966, Ono performed Cut Piece in London as part of the Destruction in Art Symposium at the Africa Centre. In this political and protest-oriented context, the piece’s invitation to cut took on sharper associations with violence and social power. The event shows how Ono’s performances could shift meaning as they entered new debates and institutions.
In November 1966, Ono exhibited Ceiling Painting (YES) at London’s Indica Gallery. Viewers climbed a ladder and used a magnifying glass to find the word “YES,” making the act of looking—and the effort required—part of the piece. The exhibition placed Ono’s participatory, instruction-based approach in a major London art setting.
In 1966–67, Ono developed a feature-length version of Film No. 4 (Bottoms) while in London. The film presents a long sequence of people’s nude buttocks walking, removing most conventional cinematic context like setting or plot. By reducing the image to repetition and bodily movement, Ono treated film as another kind of event: simple rules, real participants, and an audience asked to interpret.
In late 1967, Ono’s Half-a-Wind exhibition at Lisson Gallery in London included Half-A-Room, an installation of household objects cut in half and painted white. The missing halves pushed visitors to complete the work mentally, turning perception into a form of participation. This expanded her performance logic into gallery space: the viewer’s imagination became a required material.
From March 25–31, 1969, Ono and John Lennon staged their first Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton, inviting the press into their hotel room daily. The action used the couple’s public attention as the medium, blending performance and activism. It marked a shift in Ono’s “event” strategy from small art-world audiences to global news coverage.
Beginning May 26, 1969, Ono and Lennon held a second Bed-In at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. The week drew artists, activists, and journalists, reinforcing the Bed-In as a repeatable public “event” designed for cameras and conversation. The Montreal action is closely linked with the recording of “Give Peace a Chance,” strengthening the bridge between Ono’s performance practice and popular political culture.
In December 1969, Ono and Lennon launched the “War Is Over! (If You Want It)” campaign by placing large billboard messages in major cities. The project borrowed the tools of advertising—short phrases, high visibility, repetition—to spread an antiwar message. It extended Ono’s participatory idea into public space by making the viewer’s decision (“if you want it”) the key condition.
On October 9, 1971, Ono’s exhibition This Is Not Here opened at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse and ran through October 27. The show looked back on roughly a decade of her work, framing her performances, objects, and instruction pieces as a coherent body of ideas. As a museum presentation, it also signaled a turning point: Ono’s event-based art was being historicized and institutionalized by major art venues.
Yoko Ono's Performance Art and Events (1960–1980)