“My mom can’t walk past a tree without enthusiastically hugging it.” Sean Lennon said it when explaining the gift he gave to his mother Yoko Ono, who turns 90 today, an online installation, inspired by the first “wish tree” created by Yoko in 1996 in the wake of the ancient Japanese tradition of writing a wish on a piece of paper and then hang it on a tree branch. Between the 1960s and today, John Lennon’s widow has in fact collected almost two million “wishes”the notes that visitors to his exhibitions could leave on trees in museums and galleries around the world or bury at the base of the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland.
Born February 18, 1933 in Tokyo, in the 60s she was among the first members of Fluxus, a group of avant-garde artists, and among the first to explore conceptual installations and artistic performances. And it was just the day before the opening of one of his exhibitions at the Indica Gallery in London, in 1966, that she met John Lennon, whom she would marry three years later in Gibraltar. Sean was born on October 9, 1975, on his father’s birthday, with whom he will however manage to live for a few years, as the singer was murdered on December 8, 1980.
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To leave your desireor plant a tree, just go to the address Wish Tree For Yoko Ono and write what you want or even make a deposit to One Tree Planted. At the time of writing, the virtual installation has collected over 1,200 wishes and nearly 6,000 trees planted. Many celebrities have paid homage to Yoko Ono by sending her best wishes: among these stand out those of Ringo Starr, Elton John with her husband David Furnish, Julian Lennon, son of John and his first wife CynthiaLiam Gallagher, ed Annie Leibovitz.