I just virtually attended a panel hosted by Contemporary Calgary, and featuring Dave Dyment, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Ayumi Goto and Suzette Mayr, on Yoko Ono’s seminal written work Grapefruit. The discussion was fascinating and wide-ranging and should be available on social media at a later date.
One thing that really stood out to me is just how influential her work is/was. From performance art to decolonial poetry to queer literature, Ono’s ability to create art that only exists in the mind of the reader has inspired so many people. Including John Lennon.
Lennon claimed that when he received a copy of Grapefruit he kept it on his bedside table, alternatively frustrated with and transfixed by it. But it was instrumental in the creation of perhaps his best known song Imagine:
“The song was originally inspired by Yoko’s book Grapefruit. In it are a lot of pieces saying, Imagine this, imagine that. Yoko actually helped a lot with the lyrics, but I wasn’t man enough to let her have credit for it. I was still selfish enough and unaware enough to sort of take her contribution without acknowledging it.”
Ono would eventually receive a song-writing credit for Imagine in 2017.