Yoko Ono has generously produced A Box of Smile, 1967/2024, a limited edition artwork to coincide with the exhibition, Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, at Tate Modern, 15 February – 1 September 2024.
Ono's limited edition for Tate is a new iteration of a work which was originally conceived in 1967 and revisited at several moments in her life and career. The title of the work, A Box of Smile, functions as an instruction to the viewer who, when opening the lid, smiles in surprise upon discovering the mirror inside. Like many of Ono's works, this participatory action activates the artwork. Ono revisited the concept of A Box of Smile in 1971 with George Maciunas, founding member of Fluxus, who produced an edition of small plastic boxes inscribed 'A BOX OF SMILE Y.O. '71' in gold text on the lid. A larger cardboard version was made for John Lennon and Yoko Ono's One-to-One benefit concert in New York City in 1972. Other iterations of A Box of Smile have been produced in bronze. For the first time, a limited edition of A Box of Smile has been produced in wood, especially for Tate. Of the 1984 edition, Ono said "I just wanted to have a box that people can look into, and when they are sad and angry and all that, just see how it looks smiling. When John passed away and I was feeling so drab about it, and I looked at the mirror and I looked horrible. So I really put myself into smiling…. And so I created something that worked for me, afterwards."
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