A colourful new playscape that inspires joy marks Yinka Ilori’s first project in Scotland

Credit: Michael McGurk

Fresh off the back of various installations in London, including an entire laundrette made of LEGO, artist Yinka Ilori has today launched a new playscape at V&A Dundee, featuring pattern, music and colour.

Listening to Joy has been designed for all ages and includes brightly coloured zippable mesh walls that form a maze that can be opened and closed, creating new ways to change the space. Visitors can also experiment with sound-making using two circular xylophones. And any music made will be recorded, mixed and transformed into a series of musical pieces, capturing the fun, joy and laughter the maze might provoke.

Opening today in the V&A Dundee’s Locke Hall, it’s Yinka’s first design project in Scotland. “It’s a celebration of play, an essential experience to enjoying life as well as practising our problem-solving skills,” he explains. “Play should be collaborative, so I have created this installation for visitors of all ages to explore sounds, colours and patterns in a shared space. I hope that Listening to Joy will spark imaginations and remind all of us of the power of play.”

Credit: Michael McGurk

Play is something we could all do with right now. But interestingly, the project is informed by the often-contradictory spatial patterns adults and children form while experiencing space. Children enjoy a fluid, and non-rational encounter whilst adults often observe a more controlled and linear approach.

A London-based multidisciplinary artist, Yinka Ilori is inspired by his British and Nigerian heritage to tell new stories through contemporary design. He began his practice in 2011 up-cycling vintage furniture, inspired by the traditional Nigerian parables and West African fabrics that surrounded him as a child. 