HYDE PARK — Residents got a peek at some of Yoko Ono’s ideas for a new artwork for Jackson Park at a Tuesday meeting on the future of the park.
At the meeting at La Rabida Children’s Hospital, Chicago Park District officials showed early renderings of Ono’s “SKY LANDING,” which included 10-foot-tall metal panels shaped like flower petals unfolding between two grassy berms.
The piece will be Ono’s first permanent art installation in the Americas and has been in development since the beginning of 2015.
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A year ago, Ono visited the site on Wooded Island just outside of the gates of the Garden of the Phoenix as two sweeping berms were completed that would ring the completed sculpture.
“Chicago has been opening its heart to Japan for a very long time,” said the 82-year-old widow of late Beatle John Lennon in June of 2015 at the park. “When you give something, you're supposed to get temples back.”
The sculpture is funded by the nonprofit Project 120, which has been investing in upgrades for the park including planting cherry trees and a proposed visitors center.
Bob Karr, president of Project 120, declined to comment on whether the renderings were initial ideas or close to what visitors should expect when the piece is unveiled in the fall.
Once it is completed, “SKY LANDING” may still be difficult for many people to see first hand. Wooded Island remains closed to the public while the Army Corps of Engineers completes a $8.1 habitat restoration in Jackson Park.
The Chicago Park District and the Jackson Park Advisory Council have been leading tours of the restoration project and for the short-term that may be the best chance to see the completed work by Ono.
The piece is expected to address common themes in Ono’s work about “healing the sky,” a reference to her experiences growing up in Japan during World War II, and peace between nations.
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