Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 8/18/2026 – It takes more than just an open mind to play in Yoko Ono’s realm. The Japanese artist, musician and activist’s imagination is wonderfully represented in Music of the Mind, a expansive and surprising major retrospective at The Broad museum, Los Angeles. The vast transplant from London’s Tate Modern, where I first spotted it, is attracting those willing to participate, experience and in some cases, collaborate, in a series of happenings. And also appreciate fine art.
Some content is confronting. And psychologically intense. Take the Helmets installation subtitled Pieces of Sky. At first it seems like a playful display of hanging vessels. Until you realize these are upturned war helmets. And you can take a piece of a jigsaw (blue, which is sky and white for cloud/s) which represents an unfinished world.
Some installations are simple, yet as you delve further, others are more elaborate and participatory.
Air Bottles, circa 1967, I found intriguing as it was conceived by John (Lennon) and his “other half.” Glass jars are labeled half-a-cupboard, half-a-shoe, half-a-life, half-a-music, half-a-wind… It makes you think. And is not comfortable. Half-A-Room is the complementing installation here which comprises domestic furniture (a chair) and includes objects (a basket of flowers) and all are painted white except for half of a framed artwork on the wall. Disturbing to our sensibilities.
There are more “fun” installations such as where you can hammer a nail into a wooden surface, write a letter to your mother and tape it to the wall and a once-white room with a small boat where we added marks with hefty blue markers “just blue like the ocean” … is it graffiti or art?
The show by “y.o” as she signs her work, features controversial short filmed performances (“Bottoms,” jiggling human butt cheeks in close-up) , auditory experiences (raw vocal sounds) and visual representations of activism and radical performance “art” such as Bed-In For Peace and the international War Is Over! (If You Want It) campaign by John and Yoko.
Oh Yoko, John would be so proud.
https://www.thebroad.org
