Wish Tree by Yoko Ono
Wish Tree (1996) is a participation project between Yoko Ono and her audience.
Participants are invited to write their wishes on a piece of paper and hang in the trees.
The idea behind this work is based on Ono’s childhood memory when she, and others, would write down their wishes and hang in a tree outside a temple in Japan. From a far, the notes made the trees look like they were in bloom. The work has been installed at culture centres and museums all over the world and the wishes count more than a million. At the end of the exhibition, the wishes are collected, put in digital form and placed under the Imagine Peace Tower on Viðey Island. Imagine Peace Tower is a work by Yoko Ono from 2007, dedicated to her late husband, John Lennon. The work is in the shape of a wishing well, and from it arises a tall and majestic column of light, you can picture the wishes beneath it flying into the universe on the beam of light. Wish trees are installed in Reykjavík when the tower is lit, 9 October until 8 December every year. Yoko Ono was born in Tokyo in 1933 and moved to New York in 1953, where she lives and works to this day. She studied music and poetry at Sarah Lawrence College. During the 1960s, she became known in relation to the development of Fluxus and concept art, presenting influential performances and conceptual works.
