MJohn Lennon can understand that. After tearing up the book that Yoko Ono gave him and asking him to tear up after reading, he said, “That was the best book I’ve ever torn up.” Thank God, books tend to come out in larger editions and rather rare as singular specimens. More than half a century after the publication of the English edition of Yoko Ono’s instructions and drawings entitled “Grapefruit”, it is still possible to understand what may have led John to make the euphoric statement.
The small, yellow, square volume is divided into several chapters: Music, Pictures, Events, Poems, Objects, Film, Dance, Architecture. The most beautiful and one of the most thoughtful is the music chapter, the business card, so to speak. John Lennon probably just read that and then went straight to tearing. Because by then he must have felt that nothing would ever work out with his colleagues Paul, George and Ringo.
An apple says “buy me!”
Actually, he should have known as early as 1968, when he happened to be in a vernissage of the “Indica” gallery in London and saw an untouched, at least unbitten apple on a pedestal as an exhibit with the request: “Buy me!” – for two hundred Pound Sterling. John didn’t buy it, but he understood, as he confessed later, what was meant. The rock music fans also understood the fateful meeting between their idol and the performance artist, only somewhat differently than John Lennon – namely as the fall of rock ‘n’ roll and the end of an era with the idealized Beatles. And that’s how it happened.
Back to Grapefruit. The instructions for the play “John Lennon as a young cloud” are impressive. In the first scene, John’s head should be opened and closed again, in the second the heads of other people. Finally, in the third scene, the sky should be opened and closed again. That really leaves room for manoeuvre. The “Secret Piece” is also remarkable. You should signal with a sound that you want to play, it says.
And further: “Play with the following accompaniment: with the forests from five to eight in the morning, in summer.” That naturally opens up perspectives. The “body piece” from the dance chapter should also inspire many a performer: “Stand in the evening light until you’re transparent or fall asleep.” For some artists, three pieces of music would almost be something like long-term therapy against audience abuse. For Keith Jarrett, for example. “Snore Piece: Listen to a few people snore; until dawn.” “Laugh piece: Laugh for a week.” “Cough piece: Cough for a year.”
Incidentally, many of these compositions have been performed since the 1960s, in New York, London or Tokyo. The “Touch Piece” is said to have had a nice reaction from the audience in London, who collectively whistled the famous Colonel Bogey march from the film “The Bridge on the River Kwai”. Of course, one can understand that some pieces are still waiting for their world premiere. The “Tunafish Sandwich Piece” probably too. You should imagine a thousand suns in the sky and let them shine for an hour, then let them merge. The play ends by grabbing and eating a tuna sandwich.
In the almost seventy years of her artistic career, Yoko Ono has worked according to the motto she formulated for her “Sense Piece”: Common sense prevents you from thinking. Today she is ninety years old. In her honor, we’re now ripping up our well-kept copy of Grapefruit.
