The 78-year old artist widow of Beatles' legend John Lennon might have left India after paying a short visit earlier this month but Yoko Ono has retained an understated presence at the ongoing India Art Fair here.
Two art projects by Ono are on display at the five-day event as a part of interactive projects that seek to engage visitors and bring about a spontaneous connection between the art, the spaces and people.
Just before entering the fair's marquee area, visitors are greeted with a plain white canvas with words 'TOUCH' in english and 'Sparsh' in Hindi in bold black capital letters.
Ono has been distributing messages like this as well as 'IMAGINE', 'PEACE' and 'DREAM' over the years by putting them in public view. These messages are generally translated into the language of the country where they are displayed so that the common people understand it easily.
Apart from 'TOUCH', there are 'SMILE', 'DREAM' and 'OUR BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS' for India as messages for the year that has just begun.
Her 'Wish Tree' seems to has grabbed attention of visitors to the Art Fair here.
Located opposite the tent-entrance of the exhibition are four potted plants of medium height with a number of paper tags hanging from their little branches.
Swati Singh, a Class-IX student who attached her "wish" to the tree said, "I felt very happy in penning down my thoughts. For a moment, you really have to think what you want so dearly."
The 'Wish tree' project says Ono has been inspired by her childhood experience of visiting a temple in Japan where she would write a wish on a piece of paper and attach it to a tree branch. The work, which she first did in 1996, has been included in many of her exhibitions around the world in museums and cultural centres.
Yoko One has travelled the globe asking individuals to write their own hopes and prayers on paper tags.
At the Okhla venue of the India Art Fair too many art-loving public sat around the 'Wish-Trees' strung with paper tags floating in th breeze.
People had hung up messages that read "Wish to thank the world with my love" and "I wish for justice and education for all" among others.
One message read "I wish I will be a good and lovable person, help others and guide and meet a very good guy"!
The wishes, which are over a million from all the cities where the project has travelled, will be sent to a memorial in Iceland that Yoko Ono had created for her husband around five years back and is called 'IMAGINE PEACE TOWER'.
Talking about 'OUR BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS' Ono had said duringher visit to the capital,
"Women have a unique nurturing quality... the men however feel that they can express power best in politics, legalese, creating war....the struggle for world peace and struggle for women power is parallel now... When we create a society of freedom, justice and peace we will have world peace".
Using advertising as a medium, Yoko Ono has been effectively communicating messages since the sixties and has exhibited in museums across the world.
Both the projects have been co-organised by Vadehra Art Gallery and the Japan Foundation.
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