Wishstone is an interactive sculptural vessel. This artwork materially and symbolically transforms honeysuckle, a rampant example of human negligence, into a catalyst for considering our relationship with nature. The vessel is primarily made of a local and sustainable honeysuckle wood ash geopolymer, a material similar to cement.
Wishstone asks visitors to wish for something that is good for themselves and the Earth, providing a moment to consider the needs and fantasies we might share with the more-than-human world. To leave a wish, visitors will deposit a stone into the sculpture.
I hope you have the opportunity to visit the piece and leave a wish. As these wishes accumulate, the vessel will become evidence of a dialogue between human beings and nature. At the end of the vessel’s life cycle, when it is brimming with wishes ripened in the midwestern sun, I will bury the stones at the site where the sculpture stood. Helping to fulfill the piece’s role as a mediator between the human and non-human world.
Photo Gallery
Funding Contributed by:
Wishstone is on of the four art installations in Gallery in the Woods 2025. The guiding principle of the Gallery in the Woods 2025 program is to repurpose invasive species for installation, creating beauty and contemplation along Imago’s trails.
Zachary Collopy
Zachary Collopy is a multimedia artist. His practice grows out of a creative collaboration with the ecosystems, beings, and phenomena that animate the land in and around Dayton, Ohio. Zachary works with his non-human neighbors to create installations, interactive sculptures, and ceramic objects. These artworks use symbolic and tactile experiences to offer alternative ways of perceiving and cherishing nature in our immediate surroundings.
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Through our preservation of urban nature, our hands-on green workshops, and our education programs for youth, Imago is fostering an exciting, sustainable future that benefits us all.