Yoko Ono’s most famous performance art piece cuts both ways in Los Angeles

A new staging of Yoko Ono’s performance work Cut Piece (1986) was performed by the artist MPA at Redcat in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, 19 July, as part of a commission connected to Ono’s traveling retrospective Music of the Mind at the Broad (on view through 11 October). As in Ono’s original format, MPA sat silently onstage with scissors nearby while audience members lined up to cut away pieces of her clothing until the final scraps were removed. The event emphasized trust and mutual care, with participants described as notably gentle, contrasting with accounts of more aggressive interactions during Ono’s 1965 Carnegie Hall performance. MPA wore a sculptural black gown by Aliona Kononova and referenced Ono’s evolving interpretations of the work, including a 2008 statement on vulnerability after 11 September 2001 that mentioned US peace activist Rachel Corrie’s death in Gaza.

Read the full article at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events