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New York Through A Cockroach (& Yoko Ono's) Eyes

Author: Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)
Monday, February 2, 2004
Performance artist and peace activist Yoko Ono is bringing her acclaimed Odyssey of a Cockroach photographic exhibition to London next week, which portrays New York City from a cockroach's perspective.

"Through the eyes of this other strong race, we may learn the true reality of what our dreams and nightmares have created," said Yoko, explaining the concept behind the show.

"In the twentieth century, we as the human race were wise enough to not have to be cruel. Still, the strong need to be cruel to each other was passed on to us from the past centuries and acted on repeatedly," she said.

Now in her 70s, the wife of assassinated Beatle John Lennon experienced first hand the horrors of 20th century warfare, surviving the firestorms that killed tens of thousands in Toyko, during the Second World War.

"Every night there would be a siren and the bombers would be flying overhead and we'd have to rush into the bomb shelters and in the shelters we'd be praying as the bombs went Boom, boom, boom as they dropped," she told Skrufff last year.

The bombs penetrated the earth and the shelters were in the earth so you'd really hear them - ' Whoom, whoom, whoom', getting nearer and nearer, then fading away as they passed- like music," she recalled.

"Then we'd come out of the shelters saying 'we live for one more day, one more day, it's great'. That's how it was- every day there was a chance we could have been killed. Whenever they bomb cities they always say 'We don't kill civilians' Fuey! No! Of course they do!)

Yoko Ono- Odyssey of a Cockroach, runs between Thursday 5 Feb to 7th March 2004 at ICA 'East' 14 Wharf Road, London N1 [free entry, 12 noon to 7.30pm, daily] Yoko also speaks at the Mall's ICA headquarters on Tuesday 3rd February, at 6.45 (Tickets from £6)

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