Joy Yamusangie

0:04 Oh hi everyone I actually can't see your faces at all.

0:06 But I'm going to assume that you're smiling so my name is Joy Yamusangie I'm an artist essentially I'm an illustrator to have a background in yeah illustration I draw I paint I pretty much do anything that I want to which is kind of nice yeah. So some of my past projects so this is a book cover that I made for clr james's minty alley it's like the only time that I've done something.

0:35 That's like traditionally illustration but a fun project to do and to just just to show you the range of the stuff that I do I made a film with my friend and co-director ronan mckenzie and this film was called water and this. Actually.

0:53 But we finished editing this in march 2020 great time to finish a film and try and like release the film as well. So we were super excited to release this.

1:04 And then the lockdown happened which meant that I mean nothing nothing happened so we canceled litchi everything and the way that I was used to working like in the exhibitions and shows and just like going out just suddenly stopped and I was like baking banana bread and like running and and also I took up the saxophone these are not videos by the way because I'm not ready to share that.

1:25 But I took up the saxophone and I think what made me do it. Actually was that I loved lisa simpson when I was young and I thought I want to be her.

1:39 So yeah and then alongside the saxophone I started making these paintings of musicians playing the trumpet and like sax players and like creating this like fictional band and then alongside the band I started thinking about the people who'd come and see the band like the club goers the people in the smoking area the people were making out with strangers and the people also like starting drama and I think I was just feeling a bit like I missed going out.

2:13 And I miss like going to clubs and I miss like dancing and so making this work was a way of like imagining that like making this utopia of just like fun and I wanted to just have fun with my work.

2:28 So I at the same time I was also looking at like family photos and like the really bold outfit choices that some people my family make and I then looked into like congolese dandies some congolese by the way and one of the things that I like about these dandies is that there's a rule of dress so you don't wear any more than three colors at a time. And so I thought let me try and apply that to some of my paintings and so by the end of this I had about maybe like 10 to 15 artworks all set in this like fictional jazz club which I called feeling good after like the nina simone song and I think I was at that point I probably felt like yeah.

3:13 I just want to like quit out and make an actual jazz club and then now gallery approached me and said hey we want to give you an exhibition space you can do whatever you want in it. And I thought maybe I should ease into this jazz club and make an exhibition times jazz club so I made a pinterest board which is like when things get serious.

3:39 And then I then start to think I've never. Actually made a jazz club before or any any kind of space so I did these like initial sketches and then like drew on like photoshop like this is how I imagined it to be and so the gallery then got interesting projects who made like a nice technical and health and safety version of my design so yeah I'm about to tell you how to open up your own jazz club this is not actually a real jazz club by the way.

4:12 So yeah I thought a jazz club must have a really cool neon sign on the outside so we did that we had the really cool sign we got like a fake like lamp post because we can actually get a real one and yeah and also I drew all of these lines by hand it was really hard and then. I was thinking about I wanted to create like a sense of journey through the space so if you think about like bars and clubs that you go to usually like you're traveling through a long corridor or down some stairs and so interesting projects then made like a 3d render of that.

4:57 And then we actually built that space so as soon as you walk in through the door there's like this corridor that feels like it's like narrowing in and then you get into the main space which is this is how I imagined it to be but there's like obviously like budget limitations so there was no actual stage but we put like a vinyl down to make it seem like oh this is a stage area got a piano from ebay and a really cool bar from gumtree a lot of stuff like was like just looking online for a little bit.

5:32 And then by the end of this I had about 20 plus artworks that were supposed to be about bringing like this jazz club to life.

5:41 So I started putting them around the space got some really cool framing by facility I basically wanted it to feel like this is a intensely colored jazz club and so in the day there would be like workshops the whole idea was that there had to be something happening in the space I didn't want it to be like white walls and white floors I wanted it to actually feel like this is a bar space so we did that we had a nice little opening we had like a jazz band come in and play we had like people dancing I think this is like my excuse of like trying to make that jazz vision come alive and it worked it was great fun it was nice for me to be able to mix like my illustration work with my I also did not perform by the way to mix in with my saxophone interest and love for jazz and so yeah by the end of it I had this jazz club and just had a great time.

6:41 And so when it ended I decided that I would actually stick to art because it's really really really hard work to even make a space like that.

6:49 But I had a great time. So if you'd like to see more of what I'm doing art wise and not jazz club wise then you can sign up to my mailing list or just follow me on instagram thank you [Applause]