Yoko Ono to Unveil Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland

Friday, September 28, 2007

Yoko Ono, widow of ex Beatle John Lennon will unveil the Imagine Peace Tower in Reykjavik, Iceland October 9 in celebration of what would have been Lennon’s 67th birthday.

Ono told the Associated Press “This is something that we spoke about 40 years ago,” Ono said. “Our dream is finally coming true.”

The Imagine Peace Tower is a tall beam of light that emanates from a wishing well bearing the word “Imagine Peace” in 24 languages. The tower is to be lit each year from October 9, Lennon’s birthday to December 8, the day Lennon was shot and killed in New York City. Ono said she wants to convey the feeling of the shortness of life, yet the light is eternal.

When Ono turned 70, she decided she needed a place to keep all of the thousands of wishes she has collected through the ‘wish tree’ she set up at gallery shows around the world. These wishes will be put into the tower, according to MSNBC.com

Ono started the wish tree project in the 1990’s to encourage the public to get involved in art. People write their wishes on a piece of paper and hang them from a tree. Ono dedicated such a tree in Washington D.C. in April. There are 10 trees throughout the city as part of the Street Scenes project in April.

Yoko Ono’s sculpture took engineers from Iceland and Japan who worked from her design to build a 55-foot platform beneath a 6 ½ foot-tall wishing well that houses nine spotlights. The tower sits on the coast of the Island of Vioey.

Iceland was chosen, according to Ono, because it is very eco-friendly and relies on geothermal energy.

Ono has collected nearly 495,000 wishes so far and they will be buried in ‘capsules’ around the tower, each topped with a tree.

“Eventually it will be like a forest,” Yoko Ono said.