Past Exhibition
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For complete access information about the gallery, please visit https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/visit/access/.
About This Exhibition
– This exhibition takes place in Galleries 5 and 6, accessed via the main staircase in the foyer or the lift to level 1B.
– Up to four visitors may interact with the exhibition at one time. If we are over capacity you may have to wait until someone is finished.
– The exhibition is wheelchair accessible and guide dogs are welcome.
– A large print version of the exhibition text and instruction from the artist is available in the exhibition.
– This is an interactive artwork involving scissors, glue, string and pieces of broken pottery. Care is recommended when handling the broken pottery, which can have some sharp edges.
– We recommend that all children under 12 are accompanied.
– The materials for the exhibition are presented on two two-metre long tables with a chair at each end. Wheelchair users can be accommodated along the long side of each table.
– There is no sound or video in this exhibition.
Please ask a gallery ambassador if you need any further assistance or have questions about the artwork
COVID-19
Following government guidelines, and in order to protect the health and wellbeing of our staff and community of visitors, we have made updates to our Health & Safety measures. Please read the full list here.
– This installation has been adapted in consultation with the artist to allow 2 metres distance between each visitor.
– Hand sanitiser points are installed in the gallery. Please use these before and after interacting with the work.
– A window in the gallery space will be opened to increase ventilation.
25 August 2021 – 2 January 2022
MEND PIECE for London
Mend carefully.
Think of mending the world
at the same time.
y.o.
Whitechapel Gallery visitors are invited to respond to this instruction from artist, musician and activist Yoko Ono.
On entering Galleries 5 and 6, take a seat at a table on which are placed broken fragments of ceramic cups and saucers and some simple materials for repair – scissors, glue, twine and tape. When you have finished ‘mending’, you can display the results of your efforts along the shelves on the walls.
Ono first presented this work as Mending Piece I at her 1966 solo exhibition at Indica Gallery, London, a renowned centre for countercultural art. Titled Yoko at Indica: Unfinished Paintings and Objects, almost every work in the exhibition was designed to be completed through the actions of visitors. Such instruction-based works established Ono as an important figure in the development of both Fluxus and Conceptual art. Her extensive career has since spanned performance, writing, visual art, experimental music and film. A commitment to participation and collaboration has also informed ongoing and tireless campaigns for peace and non-violence.
MEND PIECE for London draws on the Japanese tradition of kintsugi, the art of repairing broken pottery using lacquer mixed with precious metals such as gold and silver. The process nurtures breakage as an important part of an object’s history, rather than seeking to disguise it. In this artwork, the physical act of repair becomes a timely metaphor for a different kind of mending which takes place in the mind and through community.
Supported by:
Ceramics kindly provided by:
Burgess & Leigh Ltd @burleighpottery
