It’s hard to believe but it’s almost 50 years ago that John Lennon and Yoko Ono famously went to bed.
Gerry Deiter was a hot shot news photographer for Life Magazine in Montreal when he got the assignment of a lifetime.
Now the photojournalist’s images of John and Yoko at their famous Montreal Bed-in for Peace in 1969 will be displayed by the Cowichan Valley Arts Council at its Arbutus Gallery in Duncan.
The show runs from Sept. 17 to Oct. 13.
True to the spirit of the Bed-in there will be many fun ways to join in and absorb the story.
“This will not be your usual art show,” says Carmen Hildebrand, CVAC executive director. “Parents and kids can participate in many ways from adding their wishes to the Peace Tree, which will be sent to Yoko, to jumping into the bed we have set up for a selfie that looks like you are in the original hotel room.”
This show is unique, to say the least.
“It’s like sitting on the end of their bed,” said Victoria curator Joan Athey, who knew Deiter and now owns the photo archive, presenting it all over the world, most recently in Japan. “Gerry was the only photographer to document the entire eight days. His images are witness to what had been hailed as the most important moment in pop history.”
Deiter, who lived on Vancouver Island in his later years, died in 2005, a few days after this same exhibition opened at the Royal British Columbia Museum’s tribute to the ’60s.
To coincide with the show, CVAC is holding a one-day workshop Oct. 6 on songwriting with an emphasis on protest and peace songs.
An opening reception will be held on Thursday, Sept. 20, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Arbutus Gallery at the Island Savings Centre.
Admission to the show is by donation. Lawyer Penny Lehan and Merit Furniture have stepped up to sponsor the presentation.
The exhibition hours are weekdays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.
The photographer, Gerry Deiter (1934-2005) was born in Brooklyn and worked in New York City in the 1960s, photographing the music and fashion scene for the Village Voice, Harper’s Bazaar magazine, Women’s Wear Daily and other publications. Deiter supported activism against the Vietnam War, but in 1968 with the chaos of the political scene there, he and his partner headed for Montreal where he worked as a photo stringer for Life and Time magazines.
In May 1969, Life Magazine asked him to go over to the Queen Elizabeth Hotel and grab some shots of the Beatle John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono at their Bed-in for Peace. As soon as he arrived there, he knew something special was happening. He stayed for the whole event. Years later, after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S., he created the exhibit from his old negatives to re-start a dialogue about peace.
The famous Bed-in for Peace was not a spontaneous happening, but a planned campaign to promote peace and dialogue and champion human rights and non-violence.
Lennon had been raised in Liverpool, an area devastated by Second World War bombings. As a child, Yoko had been forced to evacuate from her family home in Tokyo in the aftermath of nuclear bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Bed-in was a light-hearted way to attract attention to a serious issue.
Their first Bed-in in March 1969 in Amsterdam was a test-run for what they wanted to do in New York City. Lennon was not allowed into the U.S. because of a previous marijuana charge, so they chose the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal instead.
They checked in and stayed from May 26 to June 2, 1969, leaving behind a special moment in pop history, the recording of ‘Give Peace A Chance’. Today, ‘Give Peace A Chance’ is sung in every country in the world, continuing to gather people together for social justice.