Radical Women - Yoko Ono

In the beginning, Barbara Rose asked Ono if she thinks that her perceptions, points of view and her art are still influenced by Japanese culture after she had moved to the US. But Ono said: "the world is getting smaller and smaller and we’re all influenced by each other." And then the podcast started talking about the Cut Piece and the audiences and the discussion shifted to the influence of John Lennon on Ono's work and how "there is no way to talk about Ono without talking about Lennon." She then asked Ono "who is her audience?" While the podcast is titled “Radical Women,” these questions seem ironic and frustrating to me because they are basically "structural racist" questions that are often only asked to colored women artists.

However, the questions that Barbra Rose asked seemed to me were about building "context." She asked whether Ono is influenced by Japanese culture because she wished that would explain her work. People rarely ask a white male artist what he thinks about the relation between his art and his identity. She asked Ono who her audience so she knows how her work is relevant to the public. Women artist and artist of color are often questioned the context of their work and their audiences in relation to their identity not because of their abilities but the lack of context from the public. Today, the spread of the pandemic and the collaboration between countries told us how small the world is and every individual on this earth is so connected. It is not only a time for people in the art world to think about what their responsibilities are but also how to create work that is for audiences around the world regardless of their class, gender, color, and ethnicity.