As part of her new exhibition at London’s Serpentine Gallery, ‘To the Light’, Yoko Ono, multitalented artist, film-maker, poet, musician, writer, performance artist, peace activist, and late wife of John Lennon, will present ‘Smilesfilm’, a participatory photographic project, the purpose of which is to create a global anthology of smiling faces. Yoko wrote in ‘Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings’ in 1964, ‘My ultimate goal in film-making is to make a film which includes a smiling face snap of every single human being in the world. Of course, I cannot go around the whole world and take the shots myself. I need cooperation…’
Site specific ‘Smilesfilm’ will be exhibited in Kensington Gardens and will coincide with the artist’s retrospective at the Serpentine. #smilesfilm is visual representation of Yoko’s belief not only in mass participation but also in the transformative potential of the smile, ‘The smile is such an important thing…and I’ve waited 50 years for this’. Visitors from all over the world will be able to sit in a specially-designed photo booth installed outside the Serpentine Gallery and record their smiles. These images will then be projected onto a screen and will also be uploaded onto a dedicated website, smilesfilm.com. They will also be the subject of apps for the iPhone and iPad thereby interacting with a mobile, global, digital audience.
Yoko aims, by orchestrating a global exchange of smiles, ‘to change the atmosphere of the planet’, harnessing the smile’s inherently positive, peaceful and palliative message in order to make the world a better, brighter, more ebullient place.
Yoko speaks exuberantly and enthusiastically about the project: ‘Isn’t it incredible?’ ‘People from cities and countries around the world will be able to freely upload and send their smiles by mobile phone and computer to the world and its people. Each time we add our smiles to #smilesfilm, we are creating our future, together. Give us your smile! I love you!’
For more information visit smilesfilm.com.
