Week 8 - There's Nothing Soft About Hard Times

 For this week, I chose to do a performance piece on a very well-known and controversial socio-political issue: gun violence. For my performance, I wanted the viewer to feel how devastated John Lennon fans all around the world felt when he was murdered in Central Park by a handgun in 1980, and how hard it was when it happened right in front of Yoko Ono. It was important for me to incorporate her peaceful and zen lifestyle somewhere in my video, so I included a female Buddha statue with a tea candle being lit next to it. "This is the first time I hear this story, all the time I had in mind that I had to stay calm and well for Sean’s (their son) sake. If I banged my head on anything, I might have gotten a head injury. That would have been very bad for me and my son. I thought I had to stay as strong as I could for him.” 

Gun violence, even today decades later, remains such a terrifying issue that always ends in an impassioned debate with no resolution in sight. School shootings like Sandy Hook and Parkland, just to name a few, have innocent children and teachers simply going to school one day not realizing that it was their last. Yoko Ono and John Lennon were just trying to get home that night to their son when tragedy hit. Yoko Ono shared this on Twitter for Lennon's 41st anniversary of his death,  "Over 1.5 million people have been killed by guns in the U.S.A. since John Lennon was shot and killed on December 8, 1980". 

Ono didn't want to believe the death of her husband was true until she saw him take his last breath. "The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience. After 40 years, Sean, Julian and I still miss him. 'Imagine all the people living life in peace'" is a line from his song highlighting the irony of a peaceful man dying so violently.  Unfortunately, Ono was targeted by many once The Beatles broke up because of John Lennon's death. How could people be so cruel at heart when she is grieving such a loss? The ignorance that looms on in the world today is horrible and with guns still being put in the wrong hands and the laws not being passed to prevent another school shooting from happening again, when will it all end? How many countless riots must be had just to have our voices finally be heard?

The rosary being placed on top of the gun has a very symbolic meaning as well. Every single time a mass shooting happens in this country, everyone calls out for "thoughts and prayers"...prayers won't end the violence, humanity will.

My performance piece is titled "There's Nothing Soft About Hard Times" and you can find it below. I hope you all enjoy it. Here is the link just in case you can't see it here: https://youtu.be/IdwJz-Fl52w