Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Yoko Ono Cites Sky's 'Healing' Power for Jackson Park Piece

By Alex Nitkin | June 6, 2015 1:05pm | Updated on June 8, 2015 8:51am
 Artist Yoko Ono will break ground on a new art installation in Jackson Park Friday.
Artist Yoko Ono will break ground on a new art installation in Jackson Park Friday.
View Full Caption
Flickr/ejmc, Provided

WOODLAWN — Yoko Ono says her new art installation in Jackson Park is inspired by what she calls the healing aspect of the sky.

The installation city will break ground Friday on the art installation, titled "SKY LANDING," Ono's first permanent art installation in the Americas.

Built on the former site of the Phoenix Pavillion on Wooded Island, which was dedicated to the 1893 Columbian Exposition by the United States and Japan, the piece will be a monument to the "enduring legacy of Eastern and Western collaboration," according to a city press release.

Friday's event, billed as a "ground healing ceremony," will include Japanese musical performances, as well as remarks by Ono. 

In an interview posted by 120 Chicago, a non-profit organization partnering with the Chicago Parks District to revitalize Jackson Park, Ono says. "I want the sky to land here, to cool it, and make it well again."

Ono has said that as a chold in 1945 in Japan, she was sent to the countryside from Tokyo to avoid bombings. Because of a lack of food "I looked like a little ghost," Ono says.

"It was easier to just lie down and watrch the sky. That's when I fell in love with the sky, I think," she is quoted as saying on the 120 Chicago site. "When everything was falling apart around me, the sky was always there for me...I could never give up on life as long as the sky was there."

Its newest project will mark "a new cultural renaissance on the South Side of Chicago with a resurgence of places and programs to explore and enjoy art," according to the press release.

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: