How I turn joy into art | Yinka Ilori

0:03You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hume. Think back to a moment of real joy from when you were a kid. Not a big milestone, something smaller. It could be as simple as a song you remember playing in the kitchen. A memory of a crowded room full of people you loved. I remember staying out until dark playing Ghost in the Graveyard with the neighbor kids in the summertime. Now here's a question. Where did that joy come from? Did you make it yourself or was it handed to you, passed down by the people who raised you?

0:39Visual storytelling is how a lot of stories we already carry. This is what I do in my work. I don't invent stories. I uncover them. That's the artist and designer Yinka Ilori. He grew up in London, the son of Nigerian parents, and he's built his career, turning memory, community, and heritage into art. His work is bold, exuberant, colorful, and hard to look at without feeling some sense of joy. In his talk, he traces where his own joy came from and makes the case that joy isn't something that shows up out of nowhere or something you achieve on your own. It's inherited, planted in us by our families, our communities, sometimes even by our younger selves.

1:23This is why I think joy is transgenerational. We can inherit it from what it was before or what surrounds us. It's an idea that flips the script on how we usually think about it, not as something to chase, but something to notice and then pass on. And one note, while Yinka's words stand beautifully on their own, his art really comes alive in color. If you're able to, check out the video as well over at ted.com. That's coming up right after a short break.

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4:45And now, our TED Talk of the day. My name is Yinka Elori, an artist, designer, a storyteller, a dreamer, and a person who loves color. I believe that is my calling and mission, is to bring joy to the world. We live in a time when everyone's asked the same question, who am I and what brings me joy? Looking back now, I realize this question has followed me my whole life. While Joe 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. I grew up in London, in 27, Ashby House, on a council estate.

5:35I 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. The people there are warm, grounded and strong. My father, from Ikiti State in southwest Nigeria, a place known for its nature and famous for its warm and cold springs, a place called Inkongosi. and known as the fountain of knowledge because of its reputation for academic excellence and intellectual achievement. Even 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.

6:28I felt a strong sense of connection and a strong sense of belonging to a place I'd called home. In the UK, my beloved mother did many things. She bought and sold Swiss foil lace. She catered for weddings and birthdays. She was an architect of joy, an 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. My 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.

7:26It was insane. We had all the kids after school, people in the estate, the neighbors, passers-by, would come to the corner shop. This place became a gathering point for the whole community. I was in a moment, On Sundays, my mom 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. My parents loved house parties, live music, plates of jollof rice were 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.

8:21As 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. How 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 of things I enjoyed and things that brought me joy as a youth.

9:15The indoor 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 in 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, I listen 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. We can inherit it from what it was before, or what surrounds us.

10:12This is what I did in a recent experiment. I asked my Instagram audience, what does joy look like to you today? and what is your early memories of joy looking like to you today? And 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. A 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.

11:03This 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. Around 65 percent of the 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 would talk about growth not always being immediate, sometimes it reverses 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.

12:03When it comes together, this is the magic you can create. But 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. To 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. We harvest them by sharing them. My parents always said to me, whatever you sow is what you shall reap.

12:57I hope today you all 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. Thank you.

13:16That was Yinka Ilori speaking at TED 2026. If you're curious about TED's curation, visit ted.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is a podcast from TED. This episode was fact-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Lucy Little, Emma Taubner, and Tansika Sungmarnivong. Additional support from Daniela Ballarezzo, Christopher Fazey Bogan, Valentina Bohanini, Banban Chang, Brian Green, and Lainey Lott. Learn more at podcasts.ted.com. I am Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed.

13:58Thanks for listening.

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