Chrysanne Stathacos’ installation draws its inspiration from the
artist’s travels in India and her eventful encounter with a blessed tree. Since ancient times, Sanskrit literature refers to the phenomenon of kalpavriksha, or wish-fulfilling tree, that bestows divine gifts. Devotees
of such trees, typically banyan or bodhi trees, make offerings, light candles, meditate under, and adorn the branches with colorful strips of cloth to both convey their wishes and show their gratitude when granted. Stathacos translates this tradition into the postmodern Western context, where consumerism has overrun spirituality and material goods
promise salvation.” 1
This installation will invoke key questions: why do supplicants choose trees as conduits for the transmission, gesture and performance of intense hope and despair? What does it mean to wish? Is it always the desire for an end result, a satisfaction, gratification, pacification, confirmation, reward? Or is it the mental action of wishing that soothes, calms, heals, assuages and assures? What intangible pulse of nature nudges people towards the iconic mediation of trees, stones, fire, water, and flowers?

1 : Jennifer Fisher and Jim Drobnick, “Odor Limits,” The Senses & Society 3:3, 2008, pp. 354-6,