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Yoko Ono

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Yoko Ono

(Born 1933, works in New York)

Wish Trees for Wanås, 1996/2011

Instruction, 14 apple trees, notes with wishes

“Write your wish on a piece of paper and hang it on a wish tree.” In her work, Yoko Ono returns to the act of wishing and even describes all her works as wishes. For Ono, the starting point for the idea of the Wish Tree was the trees she had seen as a child at temples in Japan – how people tied prayers written on paper and pinned them to the tree, and how the pieces of paper resembled flowers. Where the Wish Tree is set up, the wishes are hung in trees that relate to the place – on Wanås apple tree. Ono wrote the instructions for the first Wish Tree in 1996, and since then the call has spread and been part of exhibitions around the world. Over a million wishes have been harvested and collected in the Imagine Peace Tower, a memorial monument in Iceland. Yoko Ono made art history by writing her first instructions for an exhibition back in 1955. Often the prompt involves creating in thought. The act – or the thought of it – replaces the object.