A new John Lennon exhibit at the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame Annex will be a welcome event for most of the music world. John Lennon was more than just a Beattle; he was an artist, a peace activist and the husband of a Yoko Ono. However, an exhibit that features a paper bag containing the blood-stained clothes from his murder is morbid and tasteless. Yes, Yoko Ono has agreed to showcase the man's bloody clothes. The exhibit also features Lennon's famous wire-rimmed glasses and a piano, but blood-stained clothes? Come on! He was a man, not the Second Coming. I know the western world often walks the line between happy consumer and obsessive/addictive freak, but this takes the crazy cake.
I don't know who to blame. Yoko Ono? An exploitive art community? A society ripped of its own self-importance and then seduced into thinking a dead man's bloody clothes is far more interesting? The man is dead and his clothes don't possess the remedy for global chaos.
What are your thoughts?
Keith Josef Adkins is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and social commentator.