Curator, Christophe Cherix: Ono first presented Morning Piece on the roof of the Naiqua Gallery in Tokyo. She sold pieces of glass from a broken bottle. Each specified a date and a particular period of the morning.
Yoko Ono: And I liked that idea that we created something out of a sharp nothing, that's a dangerous thing. It was beautiful like a jewel, actually, for me. And I thought, "I just want to make something out of it, you know."
Christophe Cherix: Back in New York in 1965, she presented the piece on the roof of her apartment in the West Village, where she sold pieces of sea-worn glass labeled with past and future mornings.
Yoko Ono: And it was a cold morning, and it was very early morning. We did it, like, when the sun was coming up. And on a table I had a thing that I made – which was all the worn glasses on it. And underneath the worn glass, I would have then a date. Some dates were from the past, and some dates were in the future. Maybe that particular date meant something to them, or maybe not.
But you know, some people come to me and say, "Did you know that was my birthday?" or, "Did you know that we got married that day?" or something, without knowing it or whatever. And it seems like every date means something to somebody.