Yoko Ono’s ongoing participative art installation “Wish Tree” is a luminous experience of dreams, hopes, desires and heartfelt wishes.
On a recent weekend, the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan hosted the largest installation of the iconic work in North America to date.
© Pamela Thomas-Graham, 2025
Within the Wade Thompson Drill Hall, a grove of 92 trees were installed in honor of the artist’s 92nd birthday. Visitors were invited to contribute by tying personal wishes to the branches of the magnolias and fir trees arrayed throughout the space in rustic hand-wrought wooden planters.
© Pamela Thomas-Graham, 2025
What did they wish for? Many wished for the health and well-being of their loved ones. Some wished for peace, for the conservation of natural resources, for a change in the behavior of the current leaders of America. Others wished for fulfilling work, for community uplift. And some, quite sweetly, wished to have more time with cats (I did not note the same desire to spend more time with dogs).
© Pamela Thomas-Graham, 2025
Heartfelt, heartbreaking, funny, sweet, sad and beautiful, the handwritten wishes filled almost every branch of the 92 trees by the final morning of the installation.
© Pamela Thomas-Graham, 2025
I share many of the images from my visit on a post on my Instagram page, here. I hope it inspires you to make a wish. Or two.
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