Audience
Cut Piece was first performed in Tokyo in 1964 by Japanese artist Yoko Ono. This piece of performance art included Ono sitting on an empty stage, wearing her best suit with a pair of scissors beside her. The audience was instructed to cut off a small piece of her clothing and take the souvenir back to their seats with them. The piece was preformed in London, Japan and the United States with the performance being one of the many examples why Yoko was considered as a boundary pushing performance artist of her time. Yoko’s performance was intended to bring the audience into her art, with the audience interacting on an intimate level, allowing the them to influence the art. With each show the audience begin hesitantly coming to the stage and cutting of a piece, quickly returning to their seat but as it went on the audience became more comfortable interacting with the fabric and one man even cut the strap of Yokos bra.
In terms of the meaning of ‘Cut Piece’ or what the performance symbolises, my own interpretation when I first saw the final product, considering that Yoko was a social activist for the environment and peace, was maybe that its representative of how humans have been taking pieces from the earth or making cutting holes into the earth, the forests and the ozone. I also thought maybe it represents moving through life, with each person you meet and relationship established taking a little piece of you until you reach old age with memories made and pieces kept with those people you met as life went on. Ono’s aim was to get the audience thinking about what the purpose of the performance may be, with one article describing the meaning as conveying the ‘turmoil caused by war’ and resembles the torn clothing of the people of Hiroshima after the bombing. Even with the performance finished, the audience will take the piece of clothing home and Yokos intention of spreading awareness and bringing about peace.
Bryan-Wilson, Julia. “Remembering Yoko Ono’s ‘Cut Piece.’” Oxford Art Journal 26.1 (2003): 101–123. Web.
Vabethany. “Yoko Ono—Cut Piece (1965).” YouTube. YouTube, 28 February 2013. Web. 11 November 2015.
“Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece Still Shocks.” BBC News. BBC, 3 August 2012. Web. 13 November 2015.
https://www.bates.edu/museum/2017/12/06/yoko-onos-cut-piece/
Yoko onos cut piece
Meg Ruggiero
Published on December 6, 2017