JOHANNA ROBINSON         TYRIAN PURPLE    GATES    NFT    WISH FULFILLMENT    PRESS     ARCHIVE    BIO

The digital component to Wish Fulfillment consists of 170 animated coins, each sourced from paintings of wishing wells by the artist. They were available free of charge during an exhibition which took place at CRUSH Projects, NYC in 2022 as part of an experiment in wealth redistribution within the art world. Both a thought experiment and a humorous attempt to reimagine a modernized wishing well, the NFTs bridge the imaginary with real life, where visitors can “reach into” each painting and take a coin that has the potential, if one wishes for it, to gain actual wealth.

Inspired by ancient folklore speculating on the wishing well’s enchanted qualities, individuals historically believed in the promise of better health in exchange for coin offerings. Yet, as scientific data would later reveal, the perceived medicinal powers of fountains may have been the result of the coins themselves, whose purifying chemical properties made water safer to drink. Of interest to the artist is this teleological question arising between wishing and the fulfillment of wishes, the causes and goals for which, like the closed circuits of wells and fountains, redouble on each other in continuous feedback loops.

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