Artists We're Not: Yoko Ono's Wish Tree

There's something particularly relevant and zeitgeisty about participatory art. Like crowdsourcing, art that requires the involvement of the citizenry -- that is actually for the worse without it -- offers a nice, robust update on the democratic project.

That's the theory, at least. In practice, I'm not so sure. Take Yoko Ono's "Wish Tree," which took root in the MoMA courtyard this summer. The artist has asked viewers to complete the tree by writing down their wishes on little tags and hanging them on the tree.

I got my first look last week and can safely make this suggestion: the citizenry should keep their day jobs. 

The vast majority of wishes offered to the Wish Tree fall into these two categories:

1. "I Want to Be Happy"
2. "I Wish for Peace"

On the more creative side, if not paradigm shifting, were "I Want a Vespa!" and the wishes of one German participant, "A House, A Tree, A Baby (Coming Soon)," shown above.

Yoko Ono has planted other Wish Trees around the world, including one outside the Hirschhorn Museum, in DC, and based on my viewing there a year or two ago, it was a far more interesting, whimsical experience than the one at the MoMA. Then again, the contemporary art scene is a lot better in New York. Perhaps the lesson is this: the better the city's art scene, the more unimaginative its museumgoers.