Yoko Ono, Cut Piece, 1965


Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece is a famous early performance piece done in 1964. Yoko Ono sat on a stage and instructed people to come up and cut off pieces of her clothing. The reason she did this is because she wanted to show criticism against artists that just gave their work without taking. So, she wanted to give people the freedom to cut her clothes from wherever they wanted to. One by one people came up and snipped away piece of her clothing. The female participants seemed to be more conservative when they were cutting away her clothes. They would generally cut smaller pieces from non-provocative areas such as the arms or legs. The male participants, however, were not so conservative. They tended to cut larger pieces, starting with cutting off entire sleeves, eventually cutting the straps to Yoko Ono’s brassier, prompting her to end the performance. This piece was one of the most influential performance pieces. It was important not just for performance art, and pop art trends to come in the 60s and 70s, but also important for the rising feminist movement in America. With this performance, we were able to see how people would behave if given the opportunity to do something as intimate as this.








https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/yoko-ono-cut-piece-1964/ 

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