Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono Lennon (b. 1933) 小野 洋子 is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter and peace activist. Born in Tokyo, she moved with her family to New York in the mid-1950s and attended Sarah Lawrence College. She emerged onto the international art scene in the early 1960s living in New York, Tokyo and London, greatly influencing the international development of Fluxus and Conceptual art. Yoko Ono has made profound contributions to visual art, performance, filmmaking and experimental music.
Workshop
Let’s create our own ‘Wish Tree’ inspired by artist Yoko Ono’s conceptual project!
Make a wish
Write it down on a piece of paper
Find a special tree or plant (inside or outside) and attach your wish
Ask friends, family and loved ones to add wishes too
Keep wishing until your tree is covered with wishes
Share your wishes with each other and the artist too!
Materials
Pencil
Paper
Tree (or house plant)
Follow Up
What tree or plant did you choose? Why?
What is a wish?
What does a wish mean to you?
Did you invite friends and family to participate? How did you share your wishes?
How can you make your wish or wishes come true?
Yoko Ono’s artwork ‘Wish Tree’ (1993 – ongoing) has been installed in several cities around the world and lives online. Yoko has collected all the wishes –over a million and invites us all to write personal wishes for peace and tie them to a tree branch. They are preserved and stored in the Wishing Well of the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER.
Learn more about this ongoing project: imaginepeacetower.com/yoko-onos-wish-trees/
Share your wishes with the artist via email: wish@imaginepeacetower.com
“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.”
- Yoko Ono
Agnes Martin