expose yourself

Cut Piece by Yoko Ono immediately grabs one's attention, becoming doubly absorbing by the second. First performed in 1964 at the Sogetsu Art Center in Tokyo, Yoko executed the work by walking on stage and kneeling on the floor in a skirt and sweater. Audience members were requested to come on stage and begin cutting away her garments until she was naked.

Although the Jean-Paul Sartre inspired work is at first meant to be an existentialist statement on the artist's identity, to me, it is at once an altruistic act. I see the performance and happening as a statement on how to live and love, bearing ourselves, putting ourselves out there, open to judgment, ridicule, and being taken advantage of.

Thanks to archival footage, we can relive to a certain extent one of these performances and get a good feel for what it was like for Yoko. One can hear the giggles from the audience. One can see the varying sizes of clothing audience members chose to cut off as well as Yoko's face which fascinatingly shifts from triumph to uncertainty to (perhaps) regret. The most interesting and telling portion of the video of the recorded performance below comes around the 7 minute mark when a man cuts a substantial amount of her undergarment (typical male!), leaving her literally and figuratively exposed and vulnerable.


YOKO ONO CUT PIECE