Double Fantasy: John Lennon Sculpture in Bermuda

Double Fantasy is a Cor-ten steel sculpture by Bermudian artist Graham Foster in the courtyard of the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art, inside the Bermuda Botanical Gardens in Paget. Unveiled on 21 June 2012, it honors the garden flower labeled "Double Fantasy" that John Lennon saw in 1980 and borrowed as the title of his album.

What was the Double Fantasy flower?

The usual story goes like this. In the summer of 1980, Lennon was walking in the Bermuda Botanical Gardens and saw a freesia cultivar labeled "Double Fantasy." He felt the name described his marriage to Yoko Ono, and he used it as the album's title.

Not everyone in Bermuda accepts the freesia part. In 2011 The Royal Gazette reported on a local disagreement. A Bermudian school principal remembered a label in the Gardens in the early 1980s that marked a hibiscus as "Double Fantasy." A former director of agriculture said freesias would not flower in Bermuda in June and July, which is when Lennon was on the island. Neither side settled it, and no source gives a firm answer.

The sculpture stays out of the argument. Tom Butterfield of Masterworks said the flower on the sculpture was left generic on purpose, a double bloom that is neither a freesia nor a hibiscus, because of the dispute.

The freesia version did get a garden of its own. For the 2012 tribute, park curator Neville Richardson designed a freesia labyrinth on a lawn in the Gardens. It was planted with Japanese bulbs similar to the original 'Fantasy' freesia, which is no longer sold. No source says the labyrinth surrounds the sculpture or that it still exists, so check before you go looking for it.

Why Yoko Ono didn't want a bronze Lennon

Masterworks commissioned the piece for its 25th anniversary, and Tony Brannon organized the wider tribute program. Yoko Ono supported the project but did not want another bronze likeness of John. She asked for something symbolic that would bring together Lennon, the album, the flower and Bermuda, and left the final choice among Foster's designs to Masterworks.

Foster produced around 100 sketches, which were narrowed to 20 concepts. Brannon took the sketches to New York in July 2011 so Ono could see them. The finished piece combines Lennon's profile with his glasses, a Rickenbacker guitar, doves and the double flower. Foster deliberately left out a peace sign.

The sculpture is made of Cor-ten weathering steel and weighs about 2,000 lb. Its height is less clear. The Royal Gazette's preview said it was about 9 ft tall, and two days later the same paper's report on the unveiling described it as six feet tall and six feet across.

At the unveiling on 21 June 2012, Premier Paula Cox attended, Lynne Clifford represented Yoko Ono, and a video message from Ono was played. A two-week exhibit, "Imagine: the Art of John Lennon," ran in the museum's Rick Faries Gallery from 21 June to 4 July 2012, showing Bag One lithographs and serigraphs of Lennon's lyrics. A tribute concert with reggae singer Maxi Priest and local artists followed on 21 September 2012. That concert was a one-off, and no source mentions an annual event.

Lennon's Bermuda summer, June to July 1980

Lennon reached Bermuda by sea, on the Megan Jaye, a 43 ft Hinckley sloop skippered by Hank Halsted with the Coneys cousins as crew. Accounts of the departure from Newport, Rhode Island, differ: Kenneth Womack writes that they left at 8 pm on 4 June 1980, while a Newport outlet says the morning of 5 June. They hit a storm on the way. With the others seasick or exhausted, Lennon steered alone for hours. The boat arrived at St George's Harbour on 11 June.

He first rented a house at Knapton Hill, then moved to the Undercliff villa in Fairylands, Pembroke, a private home. At the Disco 40 club on Front Street, Hamilton, he heard the B-52's "Rock Lobster." It reminded him of Yoko Ono's music and helped get him writing again. On 22 June he recorded a home demo of "Borrowed Time," a title he took from Bunny Wailer's "Hallelujah Time," which he heard on the island. He said "Woman" came to him one sunny afternoon in Bermuda. It became the first single released after his murder.

The songs were written and demoed at the rented houses, not at the Botanical Gardens. Estimates of how many vary: some sources say more than 20, and Lennon himself put it at about 25. The Gardens are tied to the album title, and to a lunch Lennon had with four-year-old Sean at the Il Chianti restaurant, which stood next to the site Masterworks now occupies. Sean and Yoko Ono both came out during his stay, and Lennon left Bermuda on 29 July 1980.

Visiting the sculpture

The sculpture stands outdoors in the Masterworks courtyard, 183 South Road. The address 169 South Road that some guides give belongs to the Gardens as a whole. The Gardens are free and open from sunrise to sunset, so you can see the sculpture on a Sunday or after the museum closes. There are three gates, North on Berry Hill Road, South on South Road and West on Point Finger Road, each with parking outside.

The museum is worth adding if you have time. It occupies a mid-1800s arrowroot factory, converted between 2004 and 2008, and its collection includes works by Winslow Homer and Georgia O'Keeffe. Entry is $10, children under 12 get in free, and admission is free for everyone on the second Saturday of each month. As of May 2026, Camden House tours and the Gardens' visitor center, café and guided walks were listed as suspended or closed.

Lennon's other Bermuda locations are harder to visit. Undercliff in Fairylands is a private house, and Disco 40 on Front Street in Hamilton no longer exists. For Lennon memorials elsewhere, see the memorials list or the map.