Yoko Ono to help fight autism
Published: 17 March, 2009, 19:36
TAGS: Art, Celebrity, Health, UN
A new mural by Yoko Ono titled “Promise” will be auctioned for charity at the UN’s headquarters next month.
The artist hopes the sale, which falls on the second World Autism Awareness Day, will raise money into research into the disease.
The event was founded by the UN to increase public awareness about autism and stressing the importance of early diagnosis and intervention. The unveiling and auction of Ono’s work of art will be held in New York on April 2, AFP reports.
Autism is a neuro-psychiatric development disorder which affects the functioning of the brain, and is usually diagnosed within the early years of a child’s life. The disease causes an inability to communicate and interact with others.
Yoko Ono
Ono was born in Tokyo in 1933 into a wealthy banker’s family.
She was raised and educated in both Japan and the United States. Later she became a renowned avant-garde conceptual artist and musician.
She is perhaps most famous for having married Beatle John Lennon, who was murdered in New York in 1980.
Tens of millions around the world suffer from it. The number of people with this disease has been rising in developed countries for the past two decades.
The picture by the 76-year-old widow of John Lennon will be cut into 58 fragments which will then be pieced back together when a cure for autism is found.
Separately, Yoko Ono is to be awarded the ‘Golden Lion’ at the Venetian Biennale of Modern Art. Organisers want to honour her as “the major artist of our time”, marking her contribution to fine arts during the second half of the 20th century.
16.03.2009, 16:35
Smart art: mind the tech-gapA man with three ears, love-making robots and flying cubes: how far can art go when science is applied? On March 16 Moscow’s Winzavod hosts the latest sci-art achievements of the art project ‘Science as a premonition’. |
18.03.2009, 16:27
Christie's owner puts his modern art collection on display in MoscowOne of the world’s leading modern art lovers, Francois Pinault, will exhibit a selection of his collection in Moscow from March 20th. |
I agree with everything Yoko says about early intervention and I appreciate what she is trying to do but unfortunately the Social Services and the Mental Health Service in the UK don't work. At the age of 32 my son has been finally diagnosed with Autism after years and years of heartbreak, him suffering three breakdowns and hospitalisation teasing from other children when he was younger because it was missed by the people who should have picked it up. His symptoms were staring them in the face. Now he has missed out on all of the help that he should have been entitled to. He is a big fella and it can only be imagined what could happen during an Autistic rage, if he hadn't been diagnosed and something had gone wrong goodness knows what would happen especially if the police are then in the frame. I am only 5ft so it could also be imagined what potentially could happen to me and yet again Social Services would have blood on their hands. Be warned everyone!!