Giving Pasadena a chance
Yoko Ono’s peace installation opens at One Colorado
By Alexander Sawyer 07/31/2008
Yoko Ono has long given peace a chance. Now she’s giving Pasadena a similar opportunity with the unveiling of a new installation at the One Colorado Courtyard in Old Pasadena at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Called “Wish Trees,” the work has already been installed in various international locales. Sponsored by One Colorado and the Armory Center for the Arts, the installation involves various Southern California trees being placed in the Old Pasadena courtyard, with visitors writing down their wishes and tying them to the branches of the trees.
The wishes will then be collected and placed with other wishes from all over the world and moved to a vault in the Imagine Peace Tower, constructed in memory of Ono’s husband John Lennon on Videy Island off the coast of Iceland.
The tower, which has a base radius of 22 feet, emits a beam of light two months a year — from John Lennon’s birthday on Oct. 9 to his murder in New York on Dec. 9, 1980.
Some 500,000 wishes are already contained in canisters at the tower, all of which Ono sees as a “collective prayer” for the hopes of humankind. They will ultimately be collected in a time capsule and placed under the base of the monument, with the idea that the wishes are symbolically sent up into the universe.
There is no admission to the event in Old Pasadena, which continues through Nov. 9.
All are welcome to share their personal and communal wishes.
One Colorado Courtyard is located off Colorado Boulevard between DeLacey and Fair Oaks avenues in Old Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 792-5101 ext. 116.
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT