Sky Machine

Yoko Ono · 1961/1966

This is Sky Machine, by Yoko Ono — a stainless steel dispenser on a pedestal. You press it and it issues a card, and each card carries a pencil inscription. It is a vending machine that dispenses instructions instead of goods, from the years Ono was working alongside Fluxus.

Medium Stainless steel dispenser with engraving, stainless steel pedestal, painted steel base, and cards with pencil inscriptions · Dimensions sheet (card, each): 1 × 1 3/4" (2.5 × 4.5 cm); overall (dispenser): 16 1/8 × 16 1/8 × 51 3/16" (41 × 41 × 130 cm) · Credit The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift

Hanging beside it in Gallery 405: Blue Monochrome, TV-Dé-coll/age, no. 1

Works like this one elsewhere in the museum: Gas Pump. Set design for the ballet H.P. (Horsepower), Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Duplicate of The Large Glass, with missing elements added or The Large Glass Completed (supplementary suite, plate 17) from The Large Glass and Related Works, Vol. 1

More by Yoko Ono here: Bag Piece (1964), performed during Perpetual Fluxfest, Cinematheque, New York, June 27, 1965, Bag Piece (1964), performed during Perpetual Fluxfest, Cinematheque, New York, June 27, 1965, Bag Piece (1964), performed during Perpetual Fluxfest, Cinematheque, New York, June 27, 1965