“Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer.” — Simone Weil
In the bustle of post-colonial jitters and anxiety-ridden, high-speed everything, attention has become increasingly difficult. Simone Weil writes that attention is prayer, and for those of us who fear that nothing is sacred anymore, it feels especially urgent to return to this question: what do we give our attention to, and how?
A Berlin-based architecture studio, Fall Studio, created an installation titled Point of Peace for Bangkok Design Week 2026. Designed by architect Ekatarina, the installation was a soft space for sitting and resting, constructed from recycled waste—plastic bottle caps, used clothing—and surrounded by plants and young trees.
I was invited to create an artistic intervention within this space, and I created Attention Leaves a Trace.
The intervention was simple. Participants were invited to give their full attention to a single tree or plant for one whole minute. After choosing a plant/ tree, I set a timer and stepped back, allowing space for quiet observation and connection. When the minute ended, participants were invited to write or draw a small blessing for the plant/ tree and gently tie it onto its branches. I emphasized specificity—because, as Mary Oliver writes in Upstream, “this tree is not that tree.”
The first participant arrived almost immediately—a young boy who waved at me shyly as I was setting up. He was a little angel who ended up staying for the entire duration of the intervention. Over time, he began helping me hand out materials to others, becoming an unexpected co-facilitator. He was so sweet and a beloved presence throughout the afternoon.
As the hours unfolded, people came and went, offering their attention to different plants and trees. I deeply enjoyed watching different people give their attention to a tree, some reached out to stroke the plant, some felt antsy and agitated before the minute was over, some stood or sat stiffly, with a seriousness in the meditation with the plant. “That was such a surprising experience,” one participant expressed, “Is this what they call nature therapy?” I smiled. I was glad and surprised this emerged. Even in a short span of time, and in the midst of comings and goings, people were able to feel a sense of healing through connection with a single plant. She teared up and cried, showing me how any window into connection can give space for emotions that need to surface.
What stayed with me most was the depth of empathy that emerged. Several participants wrote blessings hoping the plants would heal, noticing how dry or fragile they appeared. One participant shared that slowing down in this way reminded him of his home in Koh Samui. Another told me the experience felt emotional—she had just bought a new plant for her condo and suddenly felt a deeper sense of responsibility and connection toward it.
One participant drew a bandaid for the scar on a tree branch, and another hoped the tree could feel “slow growth” with “no rush.” One participant wrote I hope that this tree remains strong in Thai. Another noticed the shriveled leaves and wished it “got better.”
The first boy went around saying “happy!” with his arms raised up and drew many happy drawings. Even though I didn’t fully communicate with him what the task was, he was giving the greatest blessing of all, that of happiness.
I hope, that even for just a moment there were some trees that felt humans who really saw them, not as a decorative ornament, not as some consumer good, but as beings with lives and stories too, as beings with happiness too.
One of my favorite notes was from this young girl, Belle, who wrote this lovely note in her young writing.
Transcribed: I hope your dried leaves shall fade and turn into dark green leaves and you shall sway in the wind.
It touched my heart.
The children know these mysterious secrets about life, they know for they give attention, they know, that when trees sway in the wind it is a full expression of life.
By no means was this a large intervention, but it showed me that Simone Weil is right, attention is prayer, and is not an easy one in this day and age where everything is profane under capitalism and consumerism. It gives me hope, and showed me that it is possible with just a small prompt for people to give the gift of attention.
Attention does leave a trace, whether we see it or not.
You are so beautiful
Creating a beautiful attention space between the “tree” and the “me” called the “we”. Thank you for sharing this wonderful interaction.