Yoko Ono's musical witchcraft of love and zen

By Barbara Lippert "Women are all witches," Yoko Ono said, among various other bizarre yet charming pronouncements, while being interviewed by Grey CEO Tim Mellors at the Grey Music Seminar here in Cannes today. "Women all think they are misunderstood. Maybe it's good that we are misunderstood, because [otherwise] we'd be burned to death." During the event, the ever-captivating art and music pioneer took off her (and Mellors') shoes, danced with abandon and led the packed theater in a flashlight–blinking salute to love. Diminutive, with short, cropped hair and big black sunglasses, dressed in black and showing lots of cleavage, John Lennon's long-time partner was a delightful sprite, and still came across as an energetic hipster type. She's certainly all about zen and love. When Mellors asked her about other artists doing work that's similar to the experimental "bed-ins" she and Lennon performed as anti-war activists in 1969, she said: "I'm not unhappy about anyone doing something similar. … We're all sisters and brothers." Mellors asked if there is creativity in advertising. "Of course," she said. "Advertising can be daring. It's nothing without audacity." With that, she got up and turned her back to the audience, doing some sort of free-form moves with her arms and derriere. Earlier, she spoke about the poverty she endured as a young woman growing up in Japan after World War II. She said she sold a beautiful kimono and a sewing machine for a bowl of rice. "We were really not well fed," she said. "How do you see yourself," Mellors asked her. "I see myself as a woman and a person who is alive," she responded. "There's huge power in the universe coming to you, too, if you let it." When Mellors said that "flying in the face of difficulty is brave," Yoko answered, "I don't really consider that brave. You just do it." Ono kept coming back to two points—that women do not use their power enough, and that it's extremely difficult to be an artist. "I'm giving an award called 'Courage' every year to artists who created things not to be accepted, but because it's important to do," she said. She ended by getting up and asking the audience to sing with her and use their mini flashlights. Everyone started dancing and waving their camera phones at her like candles, shedding light on darkness. The crowd then swarmed the stage, and everyone danced. It was an authentic "love-in," a true happening, as they used to say in the '60s. "I love you. See you again," said Yoko, as prop guys moved the chairs off the stage in preparation for the next seminar, and she kept dancing. Photos by Francois Durand.

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Yoko Ono's musical witchcraft of love and zen

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