Imagine Peace Tower

http://imaginepeace.com/news/imagine-peace-tower

This art piece is by Yoko Ono, the widow of John Lennon. This piece of art is dedicated to John, and was revealed on October 9, 2007. That day would have been John’s 67th birthday. It is located on Viðey Island in Reykjavík, Iceland. Yoko Ono is an artist, musician, and a filmmaker. A lot of her main work was done in the 1960s-1970s, and she was a huge fan of conceptual, experimental, and performance art (avant garde). John Lennon and Yoko Ono were very much into political activism. On their honeymoon in Amerstam they held a bed-in for peace at the Hilton Hotel from March 25-31. They knew that the press would be interested, so they invited them into their hotel room everyday from 9 in the morning until 9 at night. They held a second bed-in located in Montreal beginning May 26. They did the bed-ins to promote world peace. As a result to the Montreal bed-in, they recorded the song, “Give Peace A Chance.”

Ono, Yoko. Imagine Peace. 20 Sept. 2009. 20 Sept. 2009 ( I keep trying to post the link here, but it won't work for some reason.)

I was drawn to this piece of art because it was created by Yoko Ono. Her activism for human rights and peace has always fascinated me (it also helps that she was married to a Beatle =]). This specific project was especially interesting because it is a memorial to John Lennon, along with a continuation of their joint peace activism campaign. The story behind the tower is what I found most fascinating. The Imagine Peace website states that the idea of the tower was simply abstract over 40 years ago. Ono had listed on her Conceptual Sales List that she sent out to people who continuously followed her artwork. It was listed as a “Light House” and was described as, “A house constructed of light from prisms, which exists in accordance with the changes of the day.” In 1967 John asked Yoko if she would build one for his garden. She said she couldn't because it was simply conceptual, she made his dreams reality with this this Imagine Peace Tower.

The Imagine Peace Tower has the words “imagine peace” inscribed in 24 languages on the base of the tower. Ono wishes to have the tower of light emerge every year starting on John’s birthday, October 9th, and ending on the anniversary of his assassination, December 8th. It is illuminated two hours after sundown and lasts until midnight. The tower is also illuminated during Winter Solstice, December 21-28, New Years Eve, and during the first week of spring, March 21-28.

The subject of this piece of art is peace. The light tower is expressing a feeling. The piece is aesthetically pleasing, and gives a peaceful, angelic feeling. A technique that connects viewers to the piece of art has to do with another project of Ono’s called “Wish Trees.” The Wish Trees have been apart of her exhibitions all over the world. She invites people to write down their personal hopes for peace and to tie it to a tree branch. Over 500,000 wishes collected by Ono were buried under the Imagine Peace Tower. The writing of peace in all different languages located on the base of the tower seems to represent peace being universal. She isn’t trying to make peace happen in just one area of the world, it is supposed to be a collective act. The pictures of the Imagine Peace Tower are breathtaking, and the message and belief behind it is very empowering.

Art in my opinion has to evoke some sort of emotion. I have to get a feeling from looking, watching, or hearing the piece of art. I like when art is thought provoking. The Imagine Peace Tower is instrumental art. It was built with a specific purpose. The purpose is to memorialize John Lennon, and to represent peace.

The ancestors of this work can start at the beginning of time. There has always been fighting and wars, and there have always been people who have wished that the violence and hostility would stop. This piece also shares DNA with architecture that is built for art, also known as public art. Viewers of art can form their own opinion about what message a piece of art is trying to relay, the Imagine Peace Tower simply states it’s broad purpose.