Yoko Ono Golden Ladders

The exhibition begins outdoors with a Wish Tree for Beijing garden, planted with “Three Friends of Winter” - pine, bamboo and plum trees, symbolizing steadfastness, perseverance and resilience - the scholar-gentleman's ideal. Viewers are invited to write a wish and hang it on to a branch of a tree.

Specially dedicated to the show in Beijing, Golden Ladders is another participatory concept, where viewers are invited to bring their own gold coloured ladders of any size, shape and material to join the installation, in which 7 ladders gilded with pure gold leaf were already made, using both traditional ready-made Chinese ladders, and newly made ones. By offering a rare generosity to the participants who help to implement and materialize the instructions, the artist loses control of the evolution of the work, which acquires new life in versions made with varying degrees of creativity and invites a wider and more tolerant esthetic experience. The action of contributing a golden ladder has participants reflect upon their ladder of existence towards the sky, which is the epitome of infinity encompassing all - the origin of creation and regeneration.