In 100 Found Objects, British-Nigerian artist and designer Yinka Ilori explores Fulham’s abundant cultural landscape through a depiction of a deliberate selection of found objects, botanical symbols, and hidden treasures. Ilori approaches his creative process with reflection and storytelling. He transforms the prominent setting of Fulham Pier into a canvas for contemplation and discovery to unfold narratives that bring together Fulham’s layered past, its contemporary identity and community.
Creating new spaces poses the question of how to connect them to their context and root them within the community. Rather than pursuing novelty for its own sake or the pristine and new, Ilori asks what a space can offer to the people who inhabit it. 100 Found Objects, curated by New Public, invites us to look beyond the surface and the stories that lie beneath what we first see. What hidden stories shape the spaces we occupy today?
Inspired by the tradition of mudlarking, scavenging the riverbanks for lost or discarded items, Ilori incorporates artefacts discovered around Fulham’s shores. These include a type font thrown into the river in 1916 amid a feud between printers, intricately crafted pipes, broken jugs, and fragments that tell stories of craftsmanship, community, and memory.
Interwoven with these found objects are rich botanical references. The artwork draws from Fulham’s floral culture, seen not only in the local practice of gardening but also in the production of ceramic vases and floral tiles, and so the floral motifs are layered with symbolism.
Fulham Palace’s Walled Garden and the pioneering horticultural work of Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort (1630–1715), serve as one inspiration. As an early female botanist, Somerset cultivated an extraordinary range of plants, work that has often remained underacknowledged in historical narratives. The Blue Passionflower, a favorite of Somerset, reflects Fulham’s long-standing passion for horticulture.
A Delftware plate with it’s floral application (dated 1686–1701), originally a symbol of wealth and status, is reimagined to embody today’s values of community exchange, mutual support, and human connection, replacing materialism with shared experience.
The plants featured in the artwork also acknowledge Fulham’s global connections, colonial trade and particularly to Africa and its diasporic heritage. Among them are:
- Grains of Paradise – a medicinal spice native to West Africa
- Okra – historically used for healing and, during the transatlantic slave trade, as a form of resistance
- Cotton – evoking Fulham’s overlooked ties to colonial trade and slavery.
These botanical choices expand Fulham’s local narrative into broader global histories. They are further informed by the work of contemporary scholars such as Akosua Pareis-Osei, who explores African women’s medicinal knowledge and reproductive autonomy.
The inclusion of a dove, as a universal symbol of freedom and peace, underscores Ilori’s message that community spaces must be created not only through design, but through empathy, compassion, and shared understanding.
The installation includes façade panels overlooking the River Thames, featuring dynamic floral artwork produced using lenticular printing to create an engaging, ever-shifting visual experience.
Ultimately, 100 Found Objects is both an homage and an invitation: to look closer, think deeper, and feel the pulse of a place through the objects and stories it leaves behind. It offers a space for empathy and understanding, acknowledging the histories that shape us, so that we might build stronger, more connected communities today and into the future.