> THE WISHING CEREMONY
> 2005
> The Wishing Ceremony is an interactive
installation by visual artist Sally Sheinman,
completed in collaboration with the University of
Hertfordshire, Leicester City and mac in Birmingham,
and with funding from Arts Council England. The
project has received wide coverage in the press,
including a special Woman's Hour feature broadcast on
Radio 4 on Boxing Day 2005.
The piece consists of six wishing booths in six vivid
colours – yellow, orange, magenta, purple, green and
blue. A sign on the outside of each booth invites you
to
step inside and share your wishes and dreams. Inside the booth is a collection of hand-painted wishing tokens which act as inspiration to make a wish. Wishes are
made anonymously and as you write your wish you are able to read the dreams of others – this is a place of shared desires.
Over the course of the exhibition, the wishes built up, and were then recorded by the artist once the show closed, preserved as part of the artwork.
Visitors to the piece could unleash their most secret desires and simultaneously read and absorbed the intimate longings left behind by others. Such sharing of secrets can be profoundly moving and is increasingly valued as a way to appreciate our common humanity (see, for instance, the website http://postsecret.blogspot.com/).
Hope is a key theme in all of Sally’s work, as is spirituality. In The Wishing Ceremony' you stepped into the booth for a while and left a part of yourself behind, but in making your wish, you also took away with you a little hope. You can experience the Wishing Ceremony now by visiting Sally's interactive Wishing booth online. There are now hundreds and hundreds of wishes from polite requests to uncontrolled rants, selfless hopes to selfish desires. The number of people wishing is
immense, as one curator said they are ‘mad with wishing.’
> See more photos of the Wishing Ceremony.
> Experience the wishing ceremony to read wishes and make your own wish.
step inside and share your wishes and dreams. Inside the booth is a collection of hand-painted wishing tokens which act as inspiration to make a wish. Wishes are
made anonymously and as you write your wish you are able to read the dreams of others – this is a place of shared desires.
Over the course of the exhibition, the wishes built up, and were then recorded by the artist once the show closed, preserved as part of the artwork.
Visitors to the piece could unleash their most secret desires and simultaneously read and absorbed the intimate longings left behind by others. Such sharing of secrets can be profoundly moving and is increasingly valued as a way to appreciate our common humanity (see, for instance, the website http://postsecret.blogspot.com/).
Hope is a key theme in all of Sally’s work, as is spirituality. In The Wishing Ceremony' you stepped into the booth for a while and left a part of yourself behind, but in making your wish, you also took away with you a little hope. You can experience the Wishing Ceremony now by visiting Sally's interactive Wishing booth online. There are now hundreds and hundreds of wishes from polite requests to uncontrolled rants, selfless hopes to selfish desires. The number of people wishing is
immense, as one curator said they are ‘mad with wishing.’
> See more photos of the Wishing Ceremony.
> Experience the wishing ceremony to read wishes and make your own wish.
