YOKO ONO LAUNCHES HER "WAR IS OVER"(if you want it)' EXHIBITION AT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

Yoko Ono at her exhibition War Is Over at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Circular Quay.

YOKO Ono has invited Sydney to collaborate with her on eight art works, starting today.

"I would like you to join me and show your creative power in these works," the artist, activist and widow of Beatle John Lennon said at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia yesterday.
The works are the "participatory" pieces in Ono's first major Australian survey exhibition, War is Over! (if you want it).
They include Wish Tree For Sydney, in which visitors to the MCA can write their hopes on slips of paper and tie them to a eucalyptus sapling on the gallery's sculpture terrace. In My Mummy is Beautiful, paper and pencils are provided for visitors to write special messages to their mothers and pin them on the gallery wall.
"This was inspired by the fact that my mother passed away and I could not say anything to her now," Ono said. "I would say 'I'm sorry I didn't understand what you were going through'."
Another participatory work is Play It By Trust, where two people play with an all-white chess set.
MCA chief curator Rachel Kent worked with Ono for almost four years on the exhibition which spans the work of five decades.It opens to the public today.

Yoko Ono at her exhibition War Is Over at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Circular Quay.