Ono Baffles with Many 'Bottoms'

originally written for The Emory Wheel: Arts & Living(www.emorywheel.com)

Like most Beatles fans, I find Yoko Ono to be a touchy subject. On the one hand, Yoko’s relationship with John Lennon inspired some of his most memorable pieces, moving him away from traditional pop to the more experimental style that defined the later sounds of the Beatles and his solo work. On the other hand, there’s Revolution 9. Even the most accepting artists will admit that Ono often seems more interested in art for art’s sake, leaving Beatles fans like me craving the days of subtle simplicity.

Even with this interesting dichotomy, fans of the band are quick to pass judgment, frequently faulting Ono for the Beatles break-up. Whatever a Beatles aficionado’s feelings toward her may be, it cannot be denied that Ono was an artist in her own right long before landing a Beatle as a boyfriend.

Film connoisseur Andy Ditzler seems to understand this idea, curating Yoko Ono’s Reality Dreams, a series of screenings of Ono’s films that culminated this weekend in a screening of “Bottoms” in White Hall on Friday.

The film, arguably her most notorious work, left some audience members inspired and others just bored due to its bizarre choice in subject matter.

Yoko Ono’s “Bottoms” is literally just that: 365 professional actors’ and celebrities’ bottoms. Each derrière, filmed while the actor is walking and constantly in motion, is displayed for 15 seconds over the course an 80-minute reel.

This assortment of arses is accompanied by a cheeky soundtrack filled with quotations from the wide-variety of people involved in the project. It features interviews with Yoko Ono, director and then-husband Anthony Cox, the cast who bared their behinds as well as those who rejected the project, deeming it too vulgar or pornographic.

Only Ono could choose the most giggle-inducing part of the human body and turn it into an object on display that loses all of its hilarity, literally turning our butts into serious business.

While in the beginning, the first few displayed derrières caused the audience to giggle, after 60 minutes of watching Bottoms, you no longer see butts.

After a while, the only thing that remains in your mind is the differences between them. The fact that no person filmed walks in the same way and how no two pairs of posteriors are the same. Maybe that’s the message Ono is trying to send, through the interesting medium of our rear ends.

At the same time, 80 minutes is a little bit extreme. Boredom sets in very quickly after the initial message is understood. The film, according to Ditzler, was originally a five-minute, silent short film.

Maybe Ono should have kept it that way, given that after a few minutes the message of “Bottoms” seems to come through. This should be another lesson for Ono, just like Revolution 9, that sometimes the original tends to be more powerful.