Joy Yamusangie

Joy Yamusangie used their ROCK PAPER SCISSORS projects to explore themes of identity and place with children local to Elephant and Castle.

Taking place over the 2020/1 lockdown, the Flatpack project engaged children remotely. Envelopes of drawing and collage materials, as well as artist-led activity sheets were distributed via schools for children to take home. Joy devised activities to encourage children to consider ‘Who Am I?’ Simple prompts asked children to respond creatively to their skin, hair, emotions and facial characteristics as starting points for colourful drawings. The returned artworks were made into a series of postcards for the children to keep, share, swap and post!

‘Who Am I?’ was installed as the third in a series of four temporary billboard commissions for Tannery Projects, curated by Nina Shen-Poblete. The Flatpack postcard designs were printed large scale and pasted onto Drawing Room’s façade. Coinciding with the closing of St John’s C of E Primary School, the billboard leaves a visible imprint of the children who played a valuable part since the beginning of ROCK PAPER SCISSORS and the local community as they transition to new schools.

Joy used the Family Studio to explore ideas around the individual and community, with families who dropped in to take part. People were invited to make playful forms of portraiture, to represent themselves and each other, using drawing and cut-outs.