Fly Piece

December 1960 – June 1961

The Chambers Street loft: a series of events

Ono rents an inexpensive loft in downtown Manhattan at 112 Chambers Street and uses it as a studio and living space, while the composer La Monte Young organises concerts there. The series is attended by people such as Marcel Duchamp and Peggy Guggenheim; Ono herself presents work only once.

7 November 1966

Meets John Lennon at the Indica Gallery

At the Indica Gallery in London, where Ono is preparing “Unfinished Paintings”, her conceptual exhibition, the gallery owner John Dunbar introduces her to John Lennon. Lennon is won over by “Ceiling Painting / Yes Painting”, a ladder at the top of which a magnifying glass reveals the tiny word YES; in “Hammer a Nail” he wants to hammer a nail in, Ono at first stops him and then relents for five shillings, and Lennon replies that he will give her an imaginary five shillings and hammer in an imaginary nail.

March 1969

A “bed-in” for peace in Amsterdam

After their wedding in Gibraltar, Lennon and Ono spend their honeymoon in Amsterdam, turning it into a week-long “bed-in” for peace and against the Vietnam War.

26 May – 2 June 1969

The Montreal “bed-in”: “Give Peace a Chance”

Denied entry to the United States, where they had planned another bed-in, Lennon and Ono hold one at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, where they record “Give Peace a Chance”.

1971

Custody battle: Cox takes Kyoko away

During a 1971 custody battle Cox disappears with their eight-year-old daughter and later wins custody, claiming that Ono is an unfit mother. He renames Kyoko “Ruth Holman” and raises her in an organisation known as the Church of the Living Word; Ono and Lennon search for her for years, to no avail.

8 December 1980

The murder of John Lennon

On the evening of December 8, 1980, after returning from the Record Plant studio, where they had been working on Ono’s “Walking on Thin Ice”, Lennon is shot dead at their home, The Dakota; Ono cradles the dying Lennon and for a time lives in constant fear for herself and her son Sean. Less than a month later “Walking on Thin Ice (For John)” is released as a single and becomes her first chart success as a solo artist.