The Art of Connection
Notes from a spring visit, 2024,
Tate Modern, London.
I hadn’t planned to visit Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind. I came across it by chance while wandering through the Tate Modern. I knew little about her beyond the cultural whispers that had unfairly cast her in shadow; the woman blamed for breaking up The Beatles. I had never been encouraged to see her as an artist in her own right.
But this exhibition shifted everything.
Portrait of Yoko Ono & John Lennon, Tate Modern.
From the moment I stepped inside, I sensed a different kind of energy; generous, human, open. Ono’s work doesn’t impose itself; it invites you in. It asks you to take part, to leave a trace, to connect. Her art feels alive, not something to be observed from a distance, but something that breathes and evolves with every participant.
My Mommy Is Beautiful ~ Yoko Ono, Tate Modern.
Each piece was an invitation. A wall filled with handwritten notes to mothers, tender and unfiltered. A space coated in blue ink, layered by thousands of marks made by strangers. A shadow piece where you were asked to merge your outline with another until they became one. It felt not vulnerable, but revealing, a reminder that we are all part of something shared, and that even the smallest gesture can hold meaning.
A Space Coated in Blue Ink ~ Yoko Ono, Tate Modern
I found myself thinking about how art doesn’t always need to be a finished thing. It can be a living entity, something that changes and grows, shaped by the contributions of many. It can start conversations, spark empathy, and remind us that we are all connected.
Shadow Piece ~ Yoko Ono, Tate Modern
Her work echoed so much of what I believe about creativity and community, that small acts, when joined together, can create something vast. Like her and John’s bed-in for peace, these collective gestures speak quietly, but powerfully, of what it means to hope for change.
I left the exhibition feeling both humbled and uplifted. It reminded me that art, at its best, dissolves boundaries between people, between ideas, between what is seen and unseen. It invites us to belong.
Thank you for reading,
