Play It By Trust

Exhibit celebrates Lennon-Ono date in Montreal
May 3, 2009
BY DAVE HOEKSTRA Staff Reporter
Chicago Sun-Times

MONTREAL, Quebec — John Lennon had no spare change.

In November 1966 he wandered into Yoko Ono’s Indica Gallery Exhibit in London. Ono made a piece that required five shillings for visitors to hammer a nail into a wooden board. Lennon had been invited to the preview by the gallery’s owner, John Dunbar, who was married to singer Marianne Faithfull.

…Some of Ono’s more recent work is included, such as “Play It By Trust,” a conglomeration of 15 chess boards that invite participation. All the pieces are white. The conceptual piece is an extension of her 1966 “White Chess Set,” which was a singular board at John and Yoko’s Tittenhurst Park residence (and appeared in the film “Imagine”).

The idea behind all-white chess is that pieces lose meaning according to traditional combative black and white methods. Ono reasons that all white chess can lead to greater understanding of mutual concerns. Ono’s passion for chess came from Fluxus mentor Marcel Duchamp, who in the 1920s declared his withdrawal from the art world to pursue his passion for chess.

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