1. sit down on the stage. next to the scissors. we will cut away the stage, and cut away the cloth you hide behind. you don’t need all those layers. the stage only robs you of humanity. we can make you human again. you’re not healthy. but we can cut away the disease you hide behind. sit down and stay still.

2. how could you sit there, unmoving? how could you give us those scissors? the cloth is there for a reason, and so is the stage. you stole our humanity. you used the stage to make us destroy it. this is carnegie hall, not some peep show. and even a peep show has boundaries. you’re not an artist, you’re just afraid of being human.

3. i cut her bra. on the stage of carnegie hall, i cut her bra. no one else could. they are afraid of revealing desire. they are afraid of being human in front of an audience. she got scared. she didn’t know what she was asking for. i took the scissors and made her a woman. she didn’t know what she wanted. only i knew.

4. what could i do? i just sat and watched as they cut away the world. who could be human without anything to stand on? who could speak with scissors cutting right through the floor? this might take some time. cornball. where are they speaking from, now that everything is cut?

these are responses to the video above, a 1965 performance by yoko ono at carnegie hall.

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