Grapefruit: An Instructive by Yoko Ono
An eccentric manual for life made out of instructions, drawings and poems.
First published in Tokyo in 1964, with a print run of 500 copies, Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono, is an exotic and sensitive manual to design situations. All under the spirit of Yoko Ono —and John Lennon, author of the prologue.
Grapefruit is a small almanac-catalogue from whose pages flow glimmers of a minimal (almost Zen), irreverent and subversive philosophy.
The relationship between casualty and causality; the love between two people; the brotherhood of all mankind; the reality of unreality and the power of collective thought are some of the precepts that this small book describes in a simple, fun and didactic manner: the result of Ono’s era and her romantic and creative relationship with one of the most important artists and thinkers of the time.
Below is a small sample of her instructions:
Imagine one thousand suns in the sky at the same time. Let them shine for one hour. Then, let them gradually melt into the sky. Make one tunafish sandwich and eat.
(Instead of obtaining a mirror,
obtain a person.
Look into him.
Use different people.
Old, young, fat, small, etc.)
Draw an imaginary map.
Put a goal mark on the map where you
want to go.
Go walking on an actual street according
to your map.
If there is no street where it should be
according to the map, make one by putting
the obstacles aside.
When you reach the goal, ask the name of
the city and give flowers to the first
person you meet.
The map must be followed exactly, or the
event has to be dropped altogether.
Ask your friends to write maps.
Give your friends maps.
*
Step in all the puddles in the city.
*
Let’s piece:
Let 500 people think of the same telephone number at once for a minute at a set time.
Let everybody in the city think of the word “yes” at the same time for 30 seconds. Do it often.
Make it the whole world thinking all the time.
*
Keep laughing a week.
*
Keep coughing a week.
*
Scream
1. against the wind
2. against the wall
3. against the sky
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