How I Turn Joy into Art | Yinka Ilori | TED

00:04My name is Yinka Ilory, an artist, designer, a storyteller, a dreamer, and a person who loves color. I believe that my calling and mission is to bring joy to the world. We live in a time where everyone's asking the same question: "Who am I and what brings me joy?"

00:23Looking back now, I realize this question has followed me my whole life. While joy was always present in my life and always around me, I just didn't have the language for it. But what I did have was a world rich of color, symbols, dreams and affirmation.

00:44I grew up in London in 27 Ashby House, on a council estate. I was raised by Nigerian parents who moved to London in the 1980s. My mother from Ondo State, coined the Sunshine State. It's known for its majestic rock landscapes and warm weather.

01:10The people there are warm, grounded and strong. My father from Ekiti State in southwest Nigeria, a place known for its nature and famous for its warm and cold springs, a place called Ikogosi, and known as the Fountain of Knowledge because of its reputation for academic excellence and intellectual achievement.

01:36Even before I'd been to these places, I could picture myself growing up there, being raised there. But I was born and raised in London. I felt a strong sense of connection and a strong sense of belonging to a place I'd call home. In the UK, my beloved mother did many things.

01:57She bought and sold Swiss voile lace. She catered for weddings and birthdays. She was an architect of joy, architect of bringing people and things together. In our glass cabinet at home, she would collect objects of memories she treasured in her show glass.

02:20My dad worked in retail. Everyone called him Uncle Paul. He was everyone's uncle, dad, brother, mentor and therapist. He brought so much joy to the workplace. At one point, my parents also owned a corner shop in London. It was insane. We had all the kids after school, people in the estate, the neighbors, passersby would come to the corner shop.

02:51This place became a gathering point for the whole community. On Sundays, my mum and dad would host church services. They would lead lectures and sermons. The words of worship and affirmation, singing and moving have manifested in my memory.

03:13My parents loved house parties, live music, plates of jollof rice weaving in our small council flat. Different languages. Different journeys. All in one room. My parents brought all these rituals of community and faith and pleasure with them from Nigeria to the UK.

03:37As a child, I didn't realize I was experiencing a daily baptism of joy, a joy that had been passed on from generation to generation without even knowing it. Every ritual, every gathering, every exchange carried a deeply symbolic meaning. All these were seeds of joy.

04:00How did I harvest joy? Myself, I developed, like my mother, the same collective spirit. She collected objects. I collected symbols. A sun, a rock, hands, a star, a talking drum. At first I didn't know why I was drawn to these symbols, but I realized these symbols were memories or things I enjoyed and things that brought me joy as a youth.

04:31The Ondo sunlight, the rituals, the community. The gatherings. Visualizing them helps me harvest joy. Visual storytelling is how we unlock stories we already carry. This is what I do with my work. I don't invent stories. I uncover them. I reimagine them through my lens, similar to how I reflect on my personal experiences.

05:01I listened to people's stories and experiences and turn them into symbolic symbols. Because when you visualize something, when you share it, you can pass it on to someone else, another generation. This is why I think joy is transgenerational.

05:21We can inherit it from what it was before or what surrounds us. This is what I did in a recent experiment. I asked my Instagram audience, what does joy look like for you today? And what are your early memories of joy looking like to you today?

05:40And how could they be translated into symbols that connect with your memories? Receiving an abundance of responses felt like I was receiving another daily baptism of joy, just like my parents' rituals. I selected some of the answers and turned them into symbols.

05:59A mushroom, a cashew tree, a sports car, a palm wine cup, and I paired them up with symbols from my archive. Ripples of laughter. Precious joy. Connection, sunrise and community. This selection was based on what happened the most. Around 80 percent of the responses carried a sense of togetherness through connection: shared, inherited, not individual.

06:35Around 65 percent of responses were connected to nature: plants, sunlight, open space, feeling through light, texture and smell. About half of the responses spoke about freedom, movement, exploration, anticipation, no restrictions. Some were talking about growth not always being immediate.

07:00Sometimes it was over time, sometimes through struggle. A small number spoke about stillness. So I took all of these impressions and turned them into an artwork, an artwork that celebrates the power of transgenerational joy. When it comes together, this is the magic you can create.

07:24But what stood out to me the most was that no one spoke about personal achievement. It was always about people and places, and shared experiences. All of my responses were very visual already. It's something we often recognize in hindsight.

07:44To me, harvesting transgenerational joy means finding the seeds that were planted before you, by your parents, by your loved ones, by your community, even by your younger self. We all carry those seeds. To be able to see them, we need to visualize them.

08:05We harvest them by sharing them. My parents always said to me, whatever you sow is what you shall reap. I hope today you will reap joy. Pass it on from person to person, from generation to generation. It was passed on to me and now I want to pass it on to you.

08:24Thank you. (Applause)