I’ll admit it, I had preconceptions about this new exhibition of Yoko Ono’s work, opening tomorrow (15 Feb) at Tate Modern. If I thought of her at all, it was fleetingly – images of her in bed in New York giving peace a chance, kissing John Lennon wearing white, breaking up The Beatles, facing cameras with her enigmatic smile.

Tate Modern brutalist buildng against grey sky

So Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind (15 Feb – 1 Sept 2024), the UK’s largest ever exhibition of the Japanese-American artist with over 200 works from photography and film to installations and music, is an unexpected pleasure – clever, interactive, optimistic, a bit bonkers in places, and also surprisingly humorous.

red, green and yellow poster on wall of yoko ono — ©Yoko Ono

The tone is set even before you enter the exhibition proper with Ono’s Wish Tree, several olive trees in the communal space where you’re welcome to write your wish on a tag so it’s positive vibes and words from the heart from the off.

Tree with I wish that I can fly tab dangling from it

Then you’re into the vast white space of the exhibition, films showing against the walls, perhaps the most famous and strangely hypnotic of which is Film No4 (Bottoms), 1966, a procession of naked bums of all shapes and sizes – ostensibly there to reflect the vulnerability of humans, and slapped of course with an X rating by the British Board of Film Censors at the time.

film of a man's bottom on a screen with a bench in an art gallery Yoko Ono — ©Yoko Ono

There are whimsical, deceptively simple works where she asks you to experience the world afresh – asking you to remember nature, dummy!

Tape of Snow falling at dawn note in a white glass box Yoko Ono — ©Yoko Ono

Secret Place with bars of music Yoko Ono — ©Yoko Ono

She also has a knack for the dramatic – the Painting to Shake Hands (painting for cowards) a canvas with a whole in the centre where two people on each side of the canvas can shake hands ‘and converse’ .

close up of a white canvas with a hole in it at a gallery — ©Yoko Ono

Though I could take or leave some of the slogan paintings, the interactive elements of this exhibition are what gives it life (and will keep younger visitors interested). You can, of course, be the creator of art by contributing to her 1960 Painting to Hammer a Nail, below.

woman with backpack hammering in a nail to a wall Yoko Ono — It’s official: I’ve collaborated with Yoko Ono

There’s White Chess Set 1966, where you can sit down and play on an all white chess board and “play as long as you can remember where all your pieces are”, like much of Ono’s work both playful and political with the opposing but identical ‘pieces’ reflecting her anti-war stance.

More directly poignant is Add Colour (Refugee Boat) from 2016 – a political issue more pressing than ever – where visitors are invited to doodle and write what they like on the white rowing boat and exhibition walls. By the time it ends in September expect the room to be awash with blue, with the boat at the bottom of the ‘ocean’.

white boat in a white room with blue doodlings Yoko Ono — ©Yoko Ono

There are booths to listen to her music – I’m ashamed to say I’d never listened to a single Yoko Ono album – though her voice is actually quite beautiful. And for those more interested in her time with John Lennon there’s an area that reflects their romance and artistic collaboration.

image of beautiful Japanese woman by brick wall framed Yoko Ono — ©Yoko Ono

The final piece of the exhibition brings us back again to written expressions of love with My Mommy Is Beautiful (2004), a 15-metre long wall of canvases where the visitor can write and tape up personal messages about their, and even attach photos. I’m betting that, like me, you’ll leave Music of the Mind feeling a little bit lighter and kinder. You’ll probably give your mum a call too.

white notes with brown sticky tape on wall with headline My Mommy Is Beautiful — ©Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, (15 Feb – 1 Sept 2024) at Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. £22, free for members.

First look: Yoko Ono: ‘Music of the Mind’, Tate Modern

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