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From
the press release Odyssey of a Cockroach is a traveling exhibition
project. It was first displayed in October 2003 in New York at the Soho gallery
of Jeffrey Deitch, then it toured to the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
(February-March 2004). In May-June 2007 Moscow will become the third city after
New York and London to present to wide audience the major Yoko Ono’s project
which became world famous during the tour. Odyssey of a Cockroach
is an installation that takes the form of theatrical mise-en-scene – the
experience of a cockroach as it makes its way through the city of New York. But
more than that, it is, to quote the New York Time Out review “a phantasmagorical
passage through time – specifically the last century”. In “Odyssey
of a Cockroach”, walls are covered with billboard-size colour photographs
of gritty urban scenes – a bloody crime scene, a bombed-out building, a starving
child. Big towering objects depict similarly unsettling subjects – a six
foot rubbish bin overflowing with plaster body casts, an enormous replica of human
rat trap, and hundreds and hundreds of old discarded shoes, the owners long forgotten.
On a gigantic desk papered with maps of the world are index cards printed with
a quotation, attributed to Hermann Göring at the Nuremberg Trials: “But,
after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is
always a simple matter to drag people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist
dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship”, – said
the Reich-Marshall. – “Voice or no voice, the people can always bebrought
to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they
are being attacked and then denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and
exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country". Describing
the genesis of the project, Yoko Ono says: “We desired women to look as thin
as the people we starved. We created a break-down of our own families, severing
ourselves from other family members, mentally, emotionally and sometimes physically.
We started to abuse our children, ignoring them and allowing them to be taken
away from us. Children walked out on us as well. Fleeting peacefulness was enjoyed
with fear and doubt. Love was temporal and met with guarded cynicism. In fact,
we became the starved: both mentally and emotionally”.
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Photo
© Lenono Photo Archive |
