{"id":354495,"date":"2026-06-10T10:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/354495\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T10:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:40:15","slug":"yoko-onos-wish-trees-at-the-broad-is-a-snapshot-of-the-mood-in-los-angeles-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/354495\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoko Ono’s “Wish Trees” at the Broad is a snapshot of the mood in Los Angeles right now."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A wish is a deeply personal thing, often fleeting and silent. But sometimes, a wish is a collective endeavor, a bold and communal call for action.<\/p>\n

Yoko Ono\u2019s \u201cWish Tree\u201d installation is both. The piece \u2014 which Ono has staged more than 250 times in 35-plus countries \u2014 draws on a Japanese tradition at Buddhist temples that invites visitors to scribble their hopes and dreams onto paper tags and tie them to the branches of a tree. The wishes are left dangling amid the tree leaves, like budding fruit. <\/p>\n

Ono\u2019s very first \u201cWish Tree\u201d \u2014 a baby grapefruit tree planted in a wooden box \u2014 was shown in 1996 at Santa Monica\u2019s Shoshana Wayne Gallery<\/a> in Bergamot Station. It was part of Ono\u2019s solo show there. After the exhibition closed, the gallery planted the tree on its property. It was so meaningful to Wayne that when her gallery left Bergamot Station in 2018 (it\u2019s now located in West Adams), she re-planted the iconic tree in her own backyard \u2014 in Pacific Palisades. It tragically burned in last year\u2019s wildfire.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"Visitors <\/p>\n

Visitors secure their wishes on century-old olive trees at the Broad museum\u2019s East West Bank Plaza.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Now, 30 years after its initial debut, a grove of \u201cWish Trees\u201d is in bloom at the Broad<\/a> museum. And they appear to be much needed right now, given the voracious response from the public. The installation, \u201cWish Trees for Los Angeles,\u201d is part of Ono\u2019s solo exhibition <\/a>at the Broad, \u201cMusic of the Mind.\u201d Outside, on the museum\u2019s East West Bank Plaza, 10 century-old olive trees are brimming with paper wishes from the public. Together, the bounty of wishes reflect our collective mood in L.A., offering a prismatic snapshot of our hopes, frustrations, anxieties, dreams and desires at this moment in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cOno\u2019s work is ever-relevant and it connects with people where they are, regardless of the context. But of course, right now, we need a place to put hope and think about making the world better,\u201d said Broad curator and exhibitions manager Sarah Loyer. \u201cWe\u2019re in a really difficult, dark place globally, nationally, and all of the ways we\u2019ve experienced that as a city with the effects of climate change, the fires and ICE. It feels really important that we have space for hope and reflection.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a recent morning, hundreds of sun-dappled wishes shimmied in the tree leaves in at least 10 languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, German, Italian, Chinese, Persian, French and Turkish among them. They\u2019d all been penned that day. Nearby on a table were paper tags, pens and instructions, which included asking a friend \u201cto do the same. Keep wishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some wishes called for world peace or the end to war. Others spoke to financial hardships, like the desire to buy a home or keep a job. Many wished for strength to combat physical or mental illness. A slew of wishes echoed the universal yearnings for health, wealth and true love.<\/p>\n

\u201cWishing for a free Iran,\u201d one tag read in Persian.<\/p>\n

\u201cPEACE,\u201d echoed another.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish for things to make sense,\u201d read another.<\/p>\n

One particularly moving wish hung by a small bunch of flowers tucked into a tree trunk nook: \u201cWishing to find the strength to let go of the weight of the pain my mother brings me in the final years of her life on this earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sadie <\/p>\n

Sadie Whitman, 25, left, and Jaisa Pinnock, 25, from New York ready their wishes. <\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\"Yoko <\/p>\n

Yoko Ono\u2019s original \u201cWish Tree\u201d in 1996 at Shoshana Wayne Gallery, long before it burned in the Palisades Fire. <\/p>\n

(Shoshana Wayne Gallery)<\/p>\n

A Broad visitor experience team member, whose first name is Ash, was especially touched by a wish written in Spanish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a child wishing that their parents\u2019 visa would be approved,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing Latina and living in L.A. right now, that hit so close to home. I have a lot of experience wishing for the safety of the people in my community.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was levity as well: \u201cI wish for a new game in Poki,\u201d one tag read; \u201cI wish for you to have a wish come true,\u201d read another.<\/p>\n

When words fell short, visitors to the installation drew pictures: a house surrounded by hearts; a smiling cat; a bowl full of wishes.<\/p>\n

The need for a communal outlet for hope was not lost on the Broad. It accelerated the opening of the wider exhibition in order to bring it to Angelenos at a time when, the museum felt, people especially needed it.<\/p>\n

The response to the \u201cWish Trees\u201d was immediate. Even before the exhibition was open to the public, as the museum was readying for a private press preview, passersby on Grand Avenue grabbed paper tags from the outdoor installation\u2019s instructions table and began filling the olive trees with their desires, the Broad said. The museum had designated one central tree to be the official \u201cWish Tree\u201d and it had built an elevated platform around the trunk base, so visitors could reach the branches more easily. The public filled that tree on day one \u2014 and then spread their wishes to the surrounding trees, all of which are now part of the artwork.<\/p>\n

Broad staffers now \u201charvest\u201d the wishes from the trees every day, cutting them down and saving the \u201ctrimmings\u201d in a box to make room for new paper tags (it draws about 500 to 800 wishes a day). When the exhibition is over, it plans to mail the wishes to Ono\u2019s studio in New York, which has so far amassed more than 2 million wishes internationally.<\/p>\n

Visitors interacted with the artwork in myriad ways.<\/p>\n

\"Vistors <\/p>\n

Yoko Ono\u2019s \u201cWish Trees\u201d have amassed 2 million wishes globally; each day staffers need to \u201charvest\u201d 500 to 800 wishes from the trees to make room for new paper tags. <\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Two young women who appeared to be in their early 20s posed for selfies under a \u201cWish Tree,\u201d mouths pursed. As they walked away, one of their tags fell to the ground: \u201cI want to be famous,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n

Behind them, Lauren Lloyd, 33, visiting from Nashville, sat earnestly scribbling on her wish tag, which was filled from edge to edge with neat script.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that when you\u2019re surrounded by so much opportunity to see negativity, having an opportunity to see the positive, joyful, wishful thinking people have is very powerful \u2014 especially seeing it physically and not just scrolling [online],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Newlyweds Tito Avalos, 26, and Andrea Avalos, 24, who were visiting from El Salvador, tied their wishes to a tree together, their wrists entwined and fingers clasped. A street performer crooned, in the background: \u201cI can\u2019t help falling in love with you…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really powerful \u2014 it\u2019s a little bit romantic,\u201d Tito said, adding that he\u2019d wished \u201cfor a life of more travels and to visit a lot of countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrea said that she\u2019d wished for \u201ca happy life together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd more travels too!\u201d Tito chimed in.<\/p>\n

The most spirited response of the day came from 12-year-old Jailene Pimentel, between bites of a Subway sandwich. She lives in the West Adams area and was on a school trip to the Broad from Jane B. Eisner Middle School.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s nice that people are so hopeful,\u201d she said, adding that the positivity had surprised her. <\/p>\n

Why? \u201cBecause of everything going on, like ICE, Trump. But people still wish for the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the wind kicked up, the wishes rustled, as if in conversation. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo have a child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo go to camp.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cProsperity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The \"Visitors \"Visitors \"Visitors <\/p>\n

The wish tags hanging on the \u201cWish Tree\u201d feature various hopes and dreams that are written in a number of different languages. <\/p>\n

Seeing the accumulation of other people\u2019s innermost desires in the trees \u2014 and given that the wishes are uncovered \u2014 lends the work an openness and accessibility that can be therapeutic, Loyer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can come away with a sense of healing, community and connection to a wider public or a sense of urgency to take more action,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s about spreading that message of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A wish is a deeply personal thing, often fleeting and silent. But sometimes, a wish is a collective…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[27708,27709,217,144530,9734,5178,9959,48,52,51,47,50,49,144529,592,6162,13795,12382,144527,144528,27706],"class_list":["post-354495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-broad","tag-broad-museum","tag-day","tag-desire","tag-exhibition","tag-hope","tag-installation","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-paper-tag","tag-people","tag-public","tag-tree","tag-visitor","tag-wish","tag-wish-trees","tag-yoko-ono"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}