FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Springfield, MO. (April 4, 2022) – The Springfield Art Museum is pleased to present Yoko Ono: Mend Piece, a participatory exhibition organized by the American Federation of Arts (AFA), opening Saturday, April 9. Yoko Ono (b. 1933, Tokyo, Japan) is widely recognized for her pioneering conceptual art, which has encompassed performance, instruction, film, music, and writing.
Ono proposes communal mending as an act of healing. Mend Piece brings to mind the metaphor of the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi, a technique of repairing broken or cracked pottery using brushstrokes of gold and silver, a philosophy that treats the breakage and repair as part of the object’s history - an important and precious detail, rather than something to disguise, but also the idea that once broken, it is never the same.
In a seemingly simple white room, shattered cups and saucers are placed on a table. Participants are asked to mend the fragments together using common household items: twine, glue, scissors, and tape. The resulting works are displayed on nearby shelves, evidence of the power of collective action. With straightforward directions, the artist asks participants to let go of preconceptions and consider larger ideas: “Mend with wisdom, mend with love./It will mend the earth/at the same time.”
In conjunction with this exhibition, the Museum plans educational programs in an adjacent gallery where community members can extend their experience with a variety of hands-on conceptual art projects inspired by core values of the “Fluxus” art movement including humor, chance, and active collaboration. Community programs that include performances, art workshops, mindfulness and awareness exercises, self-care practices, and litter clean-up, offer hands-on opportunities to engage – outside of the gallery – with the exhibition’s theme of mending that which needs repair.
Yoko Ono: Mend Piece will be open in the Eldredge Gallery from April 9 – July 10, 2022. Support for the Museum’s presentation of Yoko Ono: Mend Piece is generously provided by lead gifts from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Melinda J. McDaniel Charitable Trust, UW, Bank of America, N.A., Trustees, with additional support from Howard C. and Nadia T. Cavner.
The presentation of Yoko Ono's Mend Piece (Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York City version) is part of Art Room, an ongoing series of contemporary art installations organized by the AFA. For more information on this exhibition and related public programs, please visit https://www.sgfmuseum.org/261/Yoko-Ono-Mend-Piece. The Springfield Art Museum is located at 1111 East Brookside Drive Springfield, MO 65807. Admission is always free. Donations are gratefully accepted.
Image credit: Yoko Ono, Mend Piece (Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York City version), 1966/2015, Ceramic, nontoxic glue, cello tape, scissors, and twine. Dimensions variable. Collection of the Rennie Museum, Vancouver, 2018. Photographed by Blaine Campbell. Installation view, courtesy of the Rennie Collection. © 1966/2015 Yoko Ono.
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The Springfield Art Museum is Springfield, Missouri’s oldest cultural institution, founded in 1928. A department of the City of Springfield, the Museum invites you to connect with the world, your community, and yourself through active engagement with art objects. For more information, please visit www.sgfmuseum.org or contact Joshua Best, Museum Affairs Officer at (417) 874-2859 or jbest@springfieldmo.gov.
