Broad Museum, Los Angeles
Through October 11, 2026

Article by Cathy Breslaw

“The only sound that exists to me is the sound of the mind… my works are only to induce music of the mind in people. In the mind-world things spread out and go beyond time.” (Yoko Ono)

Most people know of Yoko Ono as the wife of Beatles member John Lennon (deceased 1980), however in the contemporary art world she has been widely known as a conceptual and performance artist, musician and activist. After moving to New York in the 1950s, Ono became a major figure of the sixties, and also an integral part of the development of conceptual art, and was associated with Fluxus, the international, renowned collective of artists and composers including John Cage and George Maciunas.

Born and raised in Tokyo Japan, her early classical piano training and experience of the horrors of World War II inspired her art-making. For generations, Ono has inspired audiences to think differently about ‘art’, what it is and how it can be expressed. Rather than an object maker, Ono’s ‘art’ uses words, instructions, videos, films, happenings, installations, and participatory experiences to relay her messages of peace, hope and human connection. Leaving behind the studio, gallery or museum, she wants to engage directly with her audience urging them to use their imagination and interpretations of their own minds.

Ono’s retrospective Music of the Mind is her first solo exhibition in Southern California tracing seven decades of radical art, music and activism. Organized originally by the Tate Museum in London, this Broad exhibition includes over 200 works. Upon approaching the museum, visitors encounter Wish Trees, a participatory piece where people can tie their own wishes to the olive tree branches as a living expression of hope. Continuing on into the museum itself, Ono’s videos, written instructions, installations and participatory works all seek to invite people to engage in a process of active communication – encouraging them to consider their own ideas of  the ‘art’ while experiencing her works.

During the 1950’s Ono developed her Instructions works, short texts that describe actions for viewers to contemplate and then take actions. Her book Grapefruit originally printed in 1964, includes a few hundred separate actions separated by categories into Music, Dance, Poetry etc – A few instructions:  Listen to the Sound of the Earth Turning and Painting For the Wind which asks to cut a hole in a bag filled with seeds of any kind and place the bag where there is wind. Other participatory works include Shadows – on a very large well-lit wall visitors are given a marker and asked to trace their shadows of a part of a body, and as many people do this over time, the many shadow images become “one”, Ono’s idea being that as humans we are all “one”. Other works include: Painting to Hammer a Nail asking people to hammer a nail into boards on the wall, so that repeatedly results in hundreds of nails together.

Installations included are My Mommy is Beautiful (2004), which calls for visitors to pin written thoughts or photos of their mothers eventually producing a collective wall noting the complexity of relationships with our mothers. Another installation that discusses our collective humanity is Helmets: Pieces of the Sky (2001).  People are asked to take a sky puzzle piece from one of a series of over-turned WWII era German soldier helmets suspended from the ceiling, suggesting that these puzzle pieces will form a complete sky and in Ono’s words: Take a piece of the sky: know that we are all part of each other. Another important work included is Add Colour (Refugee Boat (1960s), where Ono asks us to think about the power of collective action. A white boat is placed within a white room. Visitors are asked to select from the multi- colored blue markers to draw/write messages of peace or concerns for the challenges of today’s immigrants. Over time, the space transforms into a boundless blue ocean of color representing thoughts, and becoming a space for different ideas to take root.

Film and video forms a substantial portion of the exhibition. One well known video presented is Film #1(Match) /FLuxfilm (1966) capturing the striking of a match in slow motion. An instruction included is strike a match and watch it until it is completely out. Another video Cut Piece (1964) is featured, and is considered Ono’s most famous participatory performance work and is considered a landmark in feminist art . It was first performed at Yamaichi Hall in Kyoto Japan in which the audience was invited to cut away pieces of her clothing while she sits silently onstage.

Ono continues to invite audiences to be part of her art, and welcomes them to do performances of her work as well.

There are several printed materials including photos concerning Ono and husband John Lennon’s international peace campaigns of anti-war activism are on view. The Acorn Event (1968) told of Ono and Lennon’s project where they planted two acorns as a living sculpture for the Exhibition of British Sculpture at Coventry Cathedral in England – soon after acorns were sent to world leaders to plant in their gardens as symbols of world peace. Also included were posters entitled War is Over – If You Want and others, and in 1969 they staged their bed-in events in Amsterdam and Montreal, both projects bringing media attention to speak out against the Vietnam War.

The overriding focus of Ono’s work is one of demonstrating the possibilities of art as a force for connection, change, peace and humanism. Through instructions, performances, participatory experiences, videos and films, audiences can feel a sense of empowerment and hope.

The exhibition continues through October 11^th.  During the show, there are a series of billboards along the Sunset Strip and Hollywood Boulevard broadcasting Ono’s mantras: “THINK PEACE, ACT PEACE, SPREAD PEACE, IMAGINE PEACE” and “PEACE is POWER.” This activation refers to the iconic 1969 “WAR IS OVER! If You Want It” multimedia campaign Ono launched with Lennon that occupied a West Hollywood billboard, also on Sunset Boulevard and near the iconic Chateau Marmont. Timed to the exhibition, the Broad museum has also announced a season of related programming including concerts, theatrical performances and public art installations across Los Angeles.