This interactive social practice project asks visitors to share their wishes with Big Car Collective artists who then make these wishes come true (in a way) by making them out of cheap, available materials hidden behind the purple magic curtain that covers our table. This project is primarily focused on the interaction that happens when we talk to people about their wishes (and thus, themselves). Some wishes are very serious (like to stop being lonely) and others are small but somehow important (like a pair of lost sunglasses). For the artists, we find an exciting challenge in turning abstract wishes into concrete things that can be made rather quickly with clay, wire, paper, pipe cleaners, cardboard, construction paper, markers, glue, etc. Curbed magazine included this project in its article, 101 Small Ways You Can Improve Your City.
We have worked on this project with several different artists (including poets and musicians) at the Indianapolis Art in Odd Places (all of the above) 2014, at TEDxIndianapolis 2014, at the Virginia Avenue Folk Festival 2015, and at TEDxLilly 2015.
Here are some examples (we share each completed wish on our Instagram:
And we sometimes run out of certain things:
