Wish-fulfilling Tree

Shortly after the devastating earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25, 2015, artist Tsherin Sherpa, who was then based in the United States, returned to his home city of Kathmandu. In his creation of the seven-layer mandala at the center of Wish-fulfilling Tree, he drew upon the traditional techniques and skills of local artists and craftspeople evident in the massive reconstruction efforts in the Kathmandu Valley and throughout Nepal. This intricately hammered artwork made in the repoussoir-technique is both a memorial to the destruction wrought by the earthquake and a wish for the future. The base of the mandala is surrounded by rubble, debris, and found objects, representing the types of household goods destroyed during the natural disaster and showing a relationship between cosmic aspiration and earthly reality.The concept of the wish-fulfilling tree as a means to satisfy worldly and celestial desires is found across Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. In Sherpa’s installation it alludes to the Nepalese people’s practical hopes for economic compensation post-earthquake, symbolized in an earlier iteration of this work with signed rupee notes on the mandala. For each installation, the rubble, debris, and found objects are sourced from the nearby vicinity, creating a local connection that also speaks to the universal themes of the artwork.