PASADENA LOCALS USE WISH TREES FOR DREAMS BIG AND SMALL
by Janette Williams, Staff Writer, Pasadena Star News

World peace is all very well, but what 3-year-old Cabral Corvelo really wants is "To make a water balloon and a pancake." His wish joined dozens of others carefully written out and tied to the branches of 21 flowering crape myrtles Saturday at the opening of Yoko Ono's "Wish Tree" installation in Old Pasadena.

The wishes were personal, "For more understanding," and serious - "An end to the genocide in Darfur" - and easy to grant: "Some bubbles. "Someone even tied on a signed marriage proposal to his "soulmate":
"I wish to marry Lucy ... Love is all there is.

"There was some speculation that he could be planning to casually bring Lucy by and let her find it."I think that's very romantic and really cool," said 11-year-old Niko Lopez from Sierra Madre. "I wished for world peace and no more wars."

Five-year-old Desi Lopez did his part to promote love and understanding - not least with his older brother."I wish everyone would say I love you and no one would say I don't love you," Desi's wish read."I think there's a twinge of guilt there," his mom, Monica Lopez, said, laughing. "He once said that to his brother."

When the Wish Tree installation in the One Colorado courtyard [map] closes on Nov. 9, all the tags from Pasadena will be placed with others from all over the world and buried in special containers at the Imagine Peace Tower on Videy Island, off the coast of Reykjavik, Iceland [map}.

Ono's tribute there to her late husband, Beatle John Lennon, is a 30-foot tower lit for two months each year, starting on Oct. 9, Lennon's birthday, and ending on Dec. 9, the anniversary of his death.

Ono, who had a reputation as an avant-garde artist before she ever met and married Lennon, didn't come to town for the opening. But Jay Belloli, executive director of the Armory Center for the Arts on Raymond Avenue - who invited Ono to bring her art to Pasadena - said they hope she'll come to check it out in person.

Ono is there in spirit, said Catherine Cundy of Sierra Madre. "I loved Yoko and John Lennon when I was a kid," Cundy said. "She's still promoting world peace, she's still creating art, and she hasn't given up on the world. She's an inspiration."

YOKO ONO: WISH TREES FOR PASADENA

Wish Tree for Pasadena is an art installation that consists of 21 living crape myrtle trees installed amongst the café tables and chairs in the Courtyard of One Colorado. Visitors are invited to write their wishes on pieces of paper and hang them on the tree branches. Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree for Pasadena is free and open to the public.

The opening of the Pasadena Wish Tree exhibition will be celebrated by a group of childcare providers from Cultural Care Au Pair, along with the local children they care for and other members of their host families, giving the event a truly international flavor. The opening occurs Saturday, August 2 at 10:00 A.M. in the One Colorado Courtyard.

The local Cultural Care Au Pairs will be helping the children reach the tree branches to tie wishes in the trees.


IMAGINE PEACE TOWER

Wishes from Wish Tree for Pasadena will be joined with others from all over the world and placed in specially constructed capsules to be installed in the area surrounding Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace Tower on Videy Island, off the coast of Reykjavík, Iceland. The artwork is dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. The tower, a column of light emanating from a stone base with a radius of about 10 meters, is lit for two months each year starting on October 9, John Lennon’s birthday, and ending on December 9, the anniversary of his death. The artwork is also lit at certain other special times during the year.

For more information, visit www.IMAGINEPEACE.com

Facts about Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree for Pasadena
• 21 crape myrtle trees (Lagerstroemia)
• Planters are recycled wine barrels
• Yoko Ono’s artwork, Wish Tree, has been presented around the world, including the city of Detroit; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Lonja del Pescado, Alicante, Spain; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Samsung Museum, Seoul; the Venice Biennale exhibition; and numerous other venues
• Hundreds of thousands of wishes have been collected from around the world
• Trees will be donated to Arlington Garden, a community garden in Pasadena following the installation

Presented in collaboration with the Armory Center for the Arts and One Colorado.

Yoko Ono’s influence for this piece is connected to her early childhood experiences in Japan: “As a child, 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 bush. Trees in temple courtyards were always filled with people’s wish knots, which looked like white flowers blossoming from afar,” she said.

WISH PIECE -- y.o. '96

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.

The act of wishing is described by Ono as a “collective prayer.” Some wishes are deeply personal, some represent wishes for all humankind.

Ono’s Wish Tree installation is part of Armory Public View, which is dedicated to presenting large-scale art installations by internationally recognized artists in the outdoor pedestrian spaces of One Colorado (which included Daniel Buren’s monumental artwork in 2007.)

Public access to Ono’s art installation and the One Colorado Courtyard is free.

2 Aug 2008 - 9 Nov 2008
Yoko Ono: Wish Trees for Pasadena
One Colorado, 24 E Union St, Pasadena, CA 91103 [map]
West Colorado Blvd. Between N Fair Oaks & N Delacey Ave.