Yoko Ono’s Cleaning Pieces

wethinkwedream:

CLEANING PIECE I

Write down a sad memory.
Put it in a box.
Burn the box and sprinkle the ashes in the field.
You may give some ashes to a friend who shared the sadness.

CLEANING PIECE II

Make a numbered list of sadness in your life.
Pile up stones corresponding to those numbers.
Add a stone, each time there is sadness.
Burn the list, and appreciate the mount of stones for its beauty.

Make a numbered list of happiness in your life.
Pile up stones corresponding to those numbers.
Add a stone, each time there is happiness.
Compare the mount of stones to the one of sadness.

CLEANING PIECE III

Try to say nothing negative about anybody.
a) For three days
b) For forty-five days
c) For three months

See what happens to your life.

CLEANING PIECE IV

Write down everything you fear in life.
Burn it.
Pour herbal oil with a sweet scent on the ashes.

CLEANING PIECE V

Let a list of arbitrary names come into your mind as you go to sleep.
Say “bless you” after each name.
Do this with speed, by keeping a constant rhythm, so, in no way, you would hesitate to bless them.

solitaire-solidaire:

Tomoko Kawao

via Julia Kostreva

It’s really interesting to me when people find my work confronting, or talk about it being challenging, because that’s not my aim in it. That’s not how I think about it, because I’m trying to centre these so-called marginalised experiences, and just in a way that it’s natural to me to do that… my main purpose is when someone says to me, ‘Oh, that really resonated with me, I found that a really empowering image,’ Like that’s my audience. That’s what I’m aiming for. And I think that if someone finds it challenging I feel like, oh, that’s probably because you are used to seeing aspects of your experience as normal, and I’m not intentionally trying to be provocative. I’m actually trying to thrive and survive despite being provoked every day by racism, patriarchy, ableism, etcetera.

TextaQueen, from https://vimeo.com/204834330