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

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.”

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.

Listening to Joy is open from today until 24 April 2022 on the ground floor of the Locke Hall in V&A Dundee and is free to visit.