TALKING THROUGH YOUR ARTS – WITCH HUNT AT MCA

TALKING THROUGH YOUR ARTS – WITCH HUNT AT MCA

Lyrics from Yoko Ono’s remix album, Yes, I’m a Witch, 2007 – “Yes, I’m a witch, I’m a bitch. I don’t care what you say.”

The figure of the witch pervades our art, our literature, our history, our myth and our humour. They are seen as a scapegoat and saviour, a figure of fun and a figure of menace, a model for women and a cautionary anti-model.

In November this year a survey of a self-confessed witch, Yoko Ono will be mounted at the MCA as part of the Destination NSW and State Government Sydney International Art Series.

“The exhibition reaffirms Ono’s firm belief in the power of human agency – specifically people’s ability to dream of and work towards a better future,” says Rachel Kent, MCA Chief Curator.

Yoko is known for her influential visual art in New York from the 60s, but more notably for her union with John Lennon.

The noun ‘witch’ may derive from the old Teutonic verb ‘wik’, meaning, ‘to bend’, or it may derive from the Indo-European root ‘weik’, which refers to religion and magic. In either case, it seems fair to say that the witch is one who uses magic to bend things according to her desires.

Perhaps in the coupling of these two meanings we gain a better sense of Ono’s art and skill; her controversial successes and failings in relationship sorcery.

The exhibition War Is Over! (if you want it), will present five decades of practice through varying mediums that will feature eight participatory works; A telephone in the centre of a transparent maze in which Yoko rings and speaks to whomever answers the call, first exhibited in 1971; A series of purpose built chess tables for gallery visitors to engage with another in play and a 1966 work where visitors repair broken crockery around a communal table.

At 80 Ono’s art activism has not slowed down, recently joining forces with Artists Against Fracking, and recording a version of a Dylan folk song, with son Sean Lennon singing Don’t Frack My Mother!

One can’t help but be enticed to want to be on the receiving end of a periodic call from a spell-maker just to hear her chant something like, I’m not gonna die for you, might as well face the truth, I’m gonna stick around for quite a while”. Yes, altogether now!

“I’m a witch, I’m a bitch! I’m a witch, I’m a bitch! I’m a witch, I’m a bitch!” (AS)

War Is Over! (if you want it), Nov 15-Feb 23, Museum of Contemporary Art, 140 George St, The Rocks, $32, mca.com.au

BY ANGELA STRETCH

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