wishing
in yoko ono's art
"Keep
wishing while you participate"
Yoko Ono:
"As a child in Japan, I used to go to a temple and write out a wish on a
piece of thin paper and tie it around the branch of a tree. Trees in temple courtyards
were always filled with people's wish knots, which looked like white flowers blossoming
from afar."
The Wish Tree has been a part of many exhibitions
by Yoko Ono since the 1990s. People are invited to write their wish on a piece
of paper and hang it to a tree branch. It's like a collective prayer in a way.
Some wishes are deeply personal, some global wishes for peace and better future
for humankind.
Yoko Ono: "All my works are a form of
wishing. Keep wishing while you participate."
Yoko Ono
has used different kinds of trees at different exhibition venues, to fit the particular
venue's nature.
A powerful light obelisk full of wishes in Iceland
Imagine
Peace Tower is an illuminated column, constructed over a base with a radius
of about 10 meters, and it will be filled with messages of wishes from more than
900 000 people that have been collected so far (information according to The Japan
Times, October 2006). Imagine Peace Tower will be lit for two months each year
starting on John Lennon's birthday.
Please e-mail you wishes
to Imagine Peace Tower through this address: wish@imaginepeace.com
Wish Tree in the
interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist (2002)
Yoko Ono "When
they did it in Finland (Have You Seen The Horizon Lately,
1999) they said one tree was not enough. Because the wish was becoming much larger
than one tree. They added so many trees it became like a mini-forest. You suddenly
see very strong emotions of people coming out. It is fantastic. I'm keeping all
the wishes from all the countries, although I never read any of them. I feel it's
not right to read people's private wishes." Read the full interview
Wish
Piece by Yoko Ono (1996)
Make a wish
Write it down
on a piece of paper
Fold it and tie it around a branch of a Wish Tree
Ask
your friends to do the same
Keep wishing
Until the branches are covered
with wishes
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