New Delhi, Jan 12 (IANS): Multi-media artist and peace activist Yoko Ono, widow of late Beatles icon John Lennon, reconnected with India nearly four decades after she visited the country with her husband, with a message for peace and women's empowerment through her art.
"I have been greeted by many beautiful and intelligent Indian women. That shows India is waking up - or has already woken up. I am going to learn a lot from them. India and China would be the biggest economic powers in the world," Ono told a packed media conference here at the beginning of her 10-day performance tour of India.
Ono, born in Japan to a wealthy banking family in 1933, was brought up in the US.
Recalling her last visit to India with Lennon, whom she married in 1969, Ono said: "I don't remember what year John and I came to India. It was definitely after the four men came here and liked the place. We first came to Bombay, stayed for a couple of nights and then went to the mountains to the camp of a spiritual guru...There was a beautiful feeling about it."
"We felt it was very important to sit in his lecture. But men and women were not allowed to sit together. John and I said we could not do that - we would sit together...It was a little rude," she said.
This is the first time Ono, known for her avant garde performance and installation art, is in India for a public art engagement project about world peace and women's welfare.
The public art projects, which include the famous Wish Tree, will open Friday across 24 venues in Delhi, including the India Art Fair. They are collaborations between the Vadehra Art Gallery and the Japan Foundation.
On Jan 15, Ono will perform a public art act, 'To India With Love', at the India Habitat Centre.
Explaining the genesis of her theme project, 'Our Beautiful Daughters', that comments on women's power, Ono said: "It has something to do with what was working on my mind. The title was inspired by the fact that I was coming here. I have such incredible love and respect for Indian women."
"We have to hold on to women power which is extremely important to the world because we are the one who have created the human race. We have to treat our women well so that they remain well to bring the next human society... We are going to create the next generation, it is getting madder and madder," the sprightly 78-year-old said.
Pointing to a slow change in outlook towards gender, Ono said: "There are many intelligent and sensitive men who are coming out... we can use their power and energy."
Decked in black suit, hat and dark sun-shades, Ono in real life looked like her photographs adorning pages of numerous magazines and publications down the ages.
Ono, who combines Fluxus and the Dada-inspired art of the 1960s with her peace activism, is collecting wishes from Indian viewers for an India-specific version of her famous installation, Wish Tree.
"I tied my wish to the wish tree. People ask me what are you going to do with all these wishes. When you make your wishes, they will be sent to Iceland for the Imagine Peace tower (a memorial for John Lennon)," Ono said.