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How I Turn Joy into Art | Yinka Ilori | TED
How I Turn Joy into Art | Yinka Ilori | TED
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Sous-titres (142)
0:04
My name is Yinka Ilory, an artist, designer, a storyteller, a dreamer,
0:10
and a person who loves color.
0:12
I believe that my calling and mission
0:15
is to bring joy to the world.
0:17
We live in a time where everyone's asking the same question:
0:20
"Who am I and what brings me joy?"
0:23
Looking back now, I realize this question has followed me my whole life.
0:29
While joy was always present in my life and always around me,
0:32
I just didn't have the language for it.
0:35
But what I did have was a world rich of color, symbols,
0:40
dreams and affirmation.
0:44
I grew up in London in 27 Ashby House,
0:48
on a council estate.
0:51
I was raised by Nigerian parents who moved to London in the 1980s.
0:58
My mother from Ondo State, coined the Sunshine State.
1:05
It's known for its majestic rock landscapes and warm weather.
1:10
The people there are warm, grounded and strong.
1:15
My father from Ekiti State in southwest Nigeria,
1:21
a place known for its nature and famous for its warm and cold springs,
1:26
a place called Ikogosi,
1:28
and known as the Fountain of Knowledge
1:30
because of its reputation for academic excellence
1:34
and intellectual achievement.
1:36
Even before I'd been to these places, I could picture myself growing up there,
1:41
being raised there.
1:42
But I was born and raised in London.
1:44
I felt a strong sense of connection
1:47
and a strong sense of belonging to a place I'd call home.
1:53
In the UK, my beloved mother did many things.
1:57
She bought and sold Swiss voile lace.
2:00
She catered for weddings and birthdays.
2:04
She was an architect of joy,
2:07
architect of bringing people and things together.
2:11
In our glass cabinet at home,
2:14
she would collect objects of memories she treasured in her show glass.
2:20
My dad worked in retail.
2:23
Everyone called him Uncle Paul.
2:25
He was everyone's uncle,
2:28
dad, brother, mentor and therapist.
2:32
He brought so much joy to the workplace.
2:38
At one point, my parents also owned a corner shop in London.
2:43
It was insane.
2:44
We had all the kids after school, people in the estate, the neighbors,
2:48
passersby would come to the corner shop.
2:51
This place became a gathering point for the whole community.
2:56
On Sundays, my mum and dad would host church services.
3:00
They would lead lectures and sermons.
3:04
The words of worship and affirmation,
3:06
singing and moving
3:09
have manifested in my memory.
3:13
My parents loved house parties,
3:16
live music, plates of jollof rice weaving in our small council flat.
3:21
Different languages. Different journeys.
3:24
All in one room.
3:28
My parents brought all these rituals
3:30
of community and faith and pleasure with them
3:33
from Nigeria to the UK.
3:37
As a child, I didn't realize I was experiencing a daily baptism of joy,
3:43
a joy that had been passed on from generation to generation
3:46
without even knowing it.
3:48
Every ritual, every gathering,
3:51
every exchange
3:52
carried a deeply symbolic meaning.
3:55
All these were seeds of joy.
4:00
How did I harvest joy?
4:02
Myself, I developed, like my mother, the same collective spirit.
4:07
She collected objects.
4:09
I collected symbols.
4:12
A sun, a rock,
4:15
hands, a star, a talking drum.
4:21
At first I didn't know why I was drawn to these symbols,
4:24
but I realized these symbols were memories or things I enjoyed
4:29
and things that brought me joy as a youth.
4:31
The Ondo sunlight,
4:33
the rituals, the community.
4:36
The gatherings.
4:38
Visualizing them helps me harvest joy.
4:42
Visual storytelling is how we unlock stories we already carry.
4:45
This is what I do with my work.
4:49
I don't invent stories.
4:52
I uncover them.
4:54
I reimagine them through my lens,
4:57
similar to how I reflect on my personal experiences.
5:01
I listened to people's stories and experiences
5:04
and turn them into symbolic symbols.
5:07
Because when you visualize something,
5:10
when you share it,
5:11
you can pass it on to someone else, another generation.
5:15
This is why I think joy is transgenerational.
5:21
We can inherit it from what it was before or what surrounds us.
5:28
This is what I did in a recent experiment.
5:31
I asked my Instagram audience, what does joy look like for you today?
5:35
And what are your early memories of joy looking like to you today?
5:40
And how could they be translated into symbols
5:43
that connect with your memories?
5:46
Receiving an abundance of responses
5:48
felt like I was receiving another daily baptism of joy,
5:52
just like my parents' rituals.
5:54
I selected some of the answers and turned them into symbols.
5:59
A mushroom, a cashew tree,
6:02
a sports car,
6:05
a palm wine cup,
6:07
and I paired them up with symbols from my archive.
6:10
Ripples of laughter.
6:12
Precious joy.
6:14
Connection, sunrise
6:17
and community.
6:19
This selection was based on what happened the most.
6:23
Around 80 percent of the responses carried a sense of togetherness
6:28
through connection: shared, inherited, not individual.
6:35
Around 65 percent of responses were connected to nature:
6:38
plants, sunlight, open space,
6:42
feeling through light, texture and smell.
6:47
About half of the responses spoke about freedom,
6:50
movement, exploration, anticipation,
6:55
no restrictions.
6:57
Some were talking about growth not always being immediate.
7:00
Sometimes it was over time,
7:03
sometimes through struggle.
7:05
A small number spoke about stillness.
7:09
So I took all of these impressions and turned them into an artwork,
7:14
an artwork that celebrates the power of transgenerational joy.
7:19
When it comes together, this is the magic you can create.
7:24
But what stood out to me the most
7:26
was that no one spoke about personal achievement.
7:29
It was always about people and places, and shared experiences.
7:35
All of my responses were very visual already.
7:39
It's something we often recognize in hindsight.
7:44
To me, harvesting transgenerational joy
7:47
means finding the seeds
7:50
that were planted before you,
7:52
by your parents, by your loved ones, by your community,
7:57
even by your younger self.
7:59
We all carry those seeds.
8:02
To be able to see them, we need to visualize them.
8:05
We harvest them by sharing them.
8:08
My parents always said to me, whatever you sow is what you shall reap.
8:13
I hope today you will reap joy.
8:16
Pass it on from person to person, from generation to generation.
8:20
It was passed on to me and now I want to pass it on to you.
8:24
Thank you.
8:26
(Applause)
