Commissioned in conjunction with Day With(out) Art 1997, artist Chrysanne Stathacos’s project The Wish Machine featured a vending machine wrapped in the image of a wishing tree from India. This curious machine dispensed “wish packets,” consisting of a photo collage of the plant, as well as a small vial of the wishing tree’s essential oil.

In this way, Stathacos re-created the ritual of wishing as a multisensory experience. Intentionally located in busy Grand Central Station, too, the machine and its wishes were offered with the intention of conjuring the desires of the urban commuter–however restless or varied those might be.

Chrysanne Stathacos

The Wish Machine

Manhattan

1997