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Intolerance of ambiguity #0205/ 2005 - Satoshi Kinoshita
INTOLERANCE OF AMBIGUITY #0205/ 2005  
( Satoshi Kinoshita )

Series: Paintings: Landscape
Medium: Acrylic on stretched canvas
Size (inches): 31 x 39.5
Size (mm): 787 x 1003
Catalog #: PA_077
Description: Signed, titled, date, copyright in magic ink on the reverse.



They [John Lennon and Yoko Ono] told David Frost [in 1968] that just about everything we see, hear, feel or smell about us should be classified as art. We are each works of art in ourselves, our bodies and our minds combining to make something which should be treated in the same way that an art examiner might treat a painting or piece of sculpture. In gist, they said, the whole world is one vast gallery, one massive exhibition of art.

-Frederick James from the October 1968 edition of the Beatle book magazine.



The thing is, there's no such thing as sculpture or art or anything, it's just a bit of - it's just words, you know, and actually saying everything is art. We're all art, art is just a tag, like a journalists' tag, but artists believe it.

-John Lennon from "Frost on Saturday" (the television show) on the 24th August 1968.



Art and Vibrations:

On the 24th August 1968, John and Yoko gave their first tv interview together on the London Weekend Television show "Frost on Saturday", The programme was broadcast live between 6:45 and 7:30pm. Frederick James penned the following article for the October 1968 edition of the Beatle book magazine.

“EVEN ANTI-BEATLE PEOPLE MUST ADMIT- JOHN LENNON AND YOKO ONO MADE MARVELLOUS TV, TALKING INTERESTINGLY ABOUT ART, PEOPLE AND EVERYTHING ELSE ON DAVID FROST'S SHOW.  PERHAPS NOW JOHN WILL RECORD "GOOD VIBRATIONS": From SCENE PAGE, DISC AND MUSIC ECHO.

“WASN'T JOHN LENNON BORING ON SATURDAY'S DAVID FROST ITV SHOW“ : From TAIL PIECES BY THE ALLEY CAT, NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS.

Above I have reproduced two typically contrasting reactions to the same TV discussion, the first finding interest and entertainment in what John and Yoko had to say and the second writing off the whole thing as a bore.

In case you missed the London Weekend Television programme in question I'd better put you in the picture before we go any further. Frost and his audience heard John and Yoko explain their opinion that the words "art", "sculpture", and so forth, ought to have a much wider meaning. As far as we are concerned a piece of sculpture is usually made of clay, wood, metal or a similarly orthodox substance. It is chipped, moulded, scraped or even burned into the shape its creative artist requires. That's sculpture. And art? Why, that can be all sorts of things provided they have been created with ingenuity, artistic skill and individuality. Paintings, drawings, works of dramatic art on stage or screen, pieces of pottery, beautifully designed dresses, LP record sleeves.

John and Yoko went much further. They told David Frost that just about everything we see, hear, feel or smell about us should be classified as art. We are each works of art in ourselves, our bodies and our minds combining to make something which should be treated in the same way that an art examiner might treat a painting or piece of sculpture. In gist, they said, the whole world is one vast gallery, one massive exhibition of art.

What's more they suggested that there should be much more public involvement in the creation of art. They thought we should not set aside the Artist as a breed apart, a specialist on his own. They liked the idea of having on exhibition pieces of art-work which everyone was welcome to add, to which reminds me of the giant "doodle-wall" which Ringo has along one side of his games-room extension at his Weybridge home. Visitors are invited to add their own contributions to the wall using anything they like from a felt pen to a decorator's paint brush. And then there was the exhibit called "Built Around" which John and Yoko put on show at London's Arts Laboratory a few months ago. It consisted of a wood base with chunks of broken plastic and porcelain to which visitors were invited to add. They did, too - all sorts of things from biscuit wrappings and tin cans to Coke bottles an brooches!

On David Frost's show John and Yoko used a "nail board" to demonstrate. They asked people from the studio audience to hammer a nail or two into a board and say how they felt about this. Several declared that it was an invigorating experience. Frost himself was cautious, announcing that the feeling he had was as if he had hammered a nail into a board! From there the conversation progressed and John began to talk about vibrations. He thought that without a word being spoken, without a hand being shaken, without a pair of lips connecting, people sent out vibrations, tell-tale waves of emotion which could be picked up. Each "transmission" could be "received" since each and every one of us is equipped with the mental powers of a transmitter and receiver. Trouble is, announced John, too few of us use these powers. We rely on speech and facial expression for communication. We use ears, eyes and fists to show our feelings or to decide how other people around us are feeling.

Instead or, more precisely, as well - we should be sending out and taking in those emotion loaded vibrations. John asked his audience to consider the situation where some unhappy people are sitting in a room and a much happier person joins them. Without any exchange of words or physical contact, he reckoned the vibrations in the room would become more cheerful, less "hung-up". Indeed, he took a long look around the studio audience and suggested that the vibrations around him were getting warmer, getting more friendly, as the programme progressed. He could feel sympathy, acknowledgement that some of the things he was trying to get across were making their mark. John was questioned by Frost about the badge he wore. In tiny lettering it carried the words "YOU ARE HERE". "That's more than just a joke, I suppose", said Lennon. "People read it and suddenly realize it's true. Yes, I'm here, they think. So are these other people. We're all here together. And that's where the vibrations start being exchanged. Good and bad ones according to who is sending out and how they feel."

Well, I've been talking to bunches of Beatle People since that David Frost show was screened. I've been asking them whether they understood what John and Yoko were getting at and whether they went along with the ideas of communal nail - hammering, mass communications via vibrations and the theory that we're all walking, breathing works of art in our own right. I'm afraid the reactions I got were just as varied as those expressed by the New Musical Express and Disc And Music Echo writers I've quoted at the beginning of this article.

One girl told me: "I know what John meant and I know he's right, too. But it's just like trying to get the whole world to see that war is evil. He'll never convince the people who don't want to be convinced and the world is full of those !" Another said: "I watched with my boyfriend. Neither of us could make head or tail of what John and Yoko were on about. At first I thought I was daft until my boyfriend suddenly said he didn't know what I saw in the Beatles because they talked a load of old rubbish these days." Yet one enthusiastic young 14-year-old said: "Of course there could be more communication between parents and their children, between teachers and their pupils, between politicians and their voters. John knows that, so do millions of young people all over the world so, when the time comes, we'll teach our children in ways our parents never did teach us. They'll know all about vibrations." And a 17-year-old boy joined in to add: "Of course, anything at all is art. If it isn't we shouldn't bother with it. You can make anything artistic from writing a little love letter to cutting up a birthday cake. But sex and love make the greatest art-form of all and I'm sure John and Yoko know that."

But one of the last people I talked to hadn't got the message at all. She was a 20 year old London girl, a brunette with a one-year-old marriage and a one month old baby daughter. "I belong to The Beatles Fan Club", she started. "I joined five years ago and I collect all their records. I loved 'Sgt. Pepper' and even 'Magical Mystery Tour', but I think John is making far too much of this art business. I think he's being influenced too much by Yoko Ono and I think they're both trying to make excuses for the fact that they don't know how to create really important works of art paintings or sculptures. That exhibition of balloons and collecting tins was just a joke and not even a good one.  I only wish John would stick to things he's good at. I don't mean just music because I think his writing is brilliant. Both his books were clever, funny and full of meaning. There's no meaning to the things he's doing with Yoko Ono a film of someone smiling isn't art. Nor can we appreciate knocking nails into a slab of wood. well, I ask you, surely John is losing his touch if he really thinks we ought to be praising him for THAT!"

Of course the team of Yoko and John has moved into record making as well. There’s an LP album, "The two virgins", associated with another of the new films they’ve made together. But when all is said and done I think we should admit that there IS a fair bit of good thinking in what John and Yoko have been trying to say. By and large we DON'T communicate enough and if we did the world might be a more peaceful place. And we DO send out invisible vibrations to those around us who care to pick them up - vibrations of love, hatred, impatience, contentment, boredom, disbelief, fear, excitement, aggression. And WE ARE HERE for those who want to join us. For Beatle People at any rate, the best vibrations of all come from the Beatles' music. Now THERE'S communication for you, communication at its best. Beatles' music flows right through most of the world's barriers of race and politics, religion and language.

-Frederick James/ the October 1968 edition of the Beatle book magazine/ homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob14.html



On the sleeve design and a numbered edition of The Beatles / (a.k.a. 'The White Album') (1968) by pop-artist Richard Hamilton.

The sleeve was designed by pop-artist Richard Hamilton. He originally wanted to paint the sleeve with a coffee cup stain, but they deemed it “too flippant.” He then suggested numbering the sleeves, “to create the ironic situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies.” Paul was particularly enamoured with the idea, and Pete Shotton recalled him saying: “'In a few months time we're going to have an enormous lottery, and the person with the winning number will win some fantastic prize. It'll be a real selling point. Everybody will want to buy the album to get that number.' So I said, 'Actually Paul, I really don't think that's such a terrific idea. It sounds a bit cheap to me. The Beatles don't need those kinds of gimmicks to sell records.'” In the end they all agreed with Pete, and the lottery idea was dropped.
The first twenty-five numbers were reserved for the Beatles and their friends and family. (John got the first copy, said Paul, “because he shouted the loudest.”) But it is unknown exactly how many numbers were issued in all, because some of them were damaged in the printing process and never replaced. It is therefore impossible to be 100% certain whether a missing number exists. It is known, however, that there were multiple copies of the number 2,000,000 - because Capitol ordered a dozen copies as a souvenir. The numbers were eventually discontinued completely in 1970, and by 1975 even the embossed 'The BEATLES' was dropped in favour of a straight print.

-www.beatles-discography.com


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