?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
YOKO ONO (1933- )
Promise Piece. ( A piece of broken vase from Yoko Ono's performance at Nam June Paik memorial at the Guggenheim)
Ceramic, 2006. 53x48 mm; 1⅞x2⅛ inches. Signed and dated, on reverse. Comes with accompanying envelope labeled by Jonas Mekas.
Promise Piece was performed by Ono a number of times, shattering a vase in front of a crowd and welcoming them to take a piece home with them. The "promise" initially had been to reunite after ten years and put the vase back together. In this instance the shards were distributed as a memory of Nam June Paik, Fluxus and video artist and friend of Ono's.
From Yoko Ono's performance that concluded "Nam June Paik: A Memorial Tribute" at the Guggenheim, this fragment of broken vase is signed and dated by Ono and was retrieved by Jonas Mekas. The memorial event also included speeches by John G. Harnhardt, Thomas Krens, Ken Paik Hakuta, Shigeko Kubota, Shuya Abe, Jonas Mekas, Russell Connor, David A. Ross, and Wulf Herzogenrath. Michael Wilson's account of the evening for Artforum Diary describes the performance: "Finally, after two helpers in head- to-toe black and ninja masks had carried a large canvas of a vase to the front of the stage and unrolled a canvas bag heavy with ceramic fragments, Ono walked on and took a seat. A soundtrack of birdsong faded out and, after a burst of dissonant song, she announced: ‘The vase has been broken into 450 pieces. Take one home and promise to think of Nam June.' She took out her knitting (I'm not making this up), and the crowd began to mass around her to claim their (signed) fragments before filtering out into the night."
