Yoko Ono: Cut Piece
Cut Piece is performance in which Yoko Ono allowed members of the audience to cut off her clothing with scissors. She began alone on stage, still and silent, with a pair of scissors lying next to her.
In succession, the audience approached and cut away sections of clothing. Some discretely removed small pieces, others boldly carved off large swaths. Some left their Yoko fabric on stage and others took it with them. With each cut there was a response from the spectators; a laugh, a gasp, a comment to a neighbor. Yoko seemed content to allow people to perform as they would, and only briefly responded by covering her chest when one man painstakingly removed a large and revealing section, and finished by cutting her bra straps.
Yoko’s piece is about vulnerability, the loss of self, and of control, violence, and trust. Cut Piece feels like an intensely personal experience. She must trust the individual wielding the scissors to respect her body and her person. Do they offer the same respect and care for her as they would have done for themselves? Or do they approach it as an exhibitionist display the body, an opportunity indulge some erotic fetish? Ironically, it only takes one person from the latter persuasion to put Yoko in a very vulnerable and lonely position. She has created an environment that almost guarantees this result, revealing a very negative opinion of humanity.