Yoko Ono: One Woman Show: 1960–1971

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_Film No. 4_

Yoko Ono. Film No. 4. 1966–67

Yoko Ono. Film No. 4. 1966–67. 16mm film (black-and-white, sound), 80 min. Private collection. © Yoko Ono 2015

Curator, Christophe Cherix: Ono made this feature-length version of Film No. 4 while she was in London.

Yoko Ono: Most films, including what I make, you always have a background. And so I wanted to make a film that there's no background. By doing this, that becomes a form instead of part of the form.

And also I like the idea that it has four sections and, when it's walking, each four sections moving in a different way. So that and the fact that there's no background. So it suddenly becomes an entirety.

I thought this a way of a protest, a protest against all ills – but together. You know, 365 bottoms are going to, together, protest!

When you listen to the Bottoms film, you get a whole picture of what was in London – intellectuals, what they were thinking – because most of them are very intellectual to, you know, have to take your, you know, clothes off and show their butt. I mean, that's not something that, you know, you can easily do. It wasn't just anybody.