Imagine the wealth of knowledge, resources and experience that are contained within Ilford. What would an Ilford directory of life tips look like? What would it include, share and pass on?

No matter what age we are, if we have been through a life stage, threshold or experience we have little pieces of wisdom to pass on. Small things that we learn every day.

This might be anything from: ‘Know your bus routes’, to something that takes longer to learn like ‘Be kind to yourself’ or ‘Spend time in green spaces’.

Many of us have re-evaluated life on different levels during recent times. What is important, what do we care about and what do we want to do differently?

The Ilford Directory has been imagined and co-created with Ilford residents. Teachers from schools around the borough came together to pool their top tips for life and to create collages. Then photos of Redbridge people and places, both past and present, were contributed through open calls.

Artist Emily Tracy makes site-specific projects inspired by place. Ilford Directory was inspired by the compendiums, encyclopaedias and archives housed in Redbridge Central Library, opposite SPACE’s gallery in Ilford, and the young people using the space to study.

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About Emily Tracy

Emily Tracy has created socially engaged projects which invite collaboration over many years. 

Using collage, objects and collaborative research, and, inspired by museum or archive ordering systems, she works to create participatory installation, small sculptural pieces, collage and artist books. These often reflect upon our relationship with our surroundings and our changing environment. 

She has invited audiences to collect and sort clutter, help reunite lost property, create collage to reflect our roller coaster lives of the last two years, and ask the question ‘What do we hold dear?’ Recent projects have been driven to explore the human desire to know, to find and to collect, and how this relates to our lives and places we live in.

Emily has created projects for The Arts Council, B-Side, Metal (Peterborough), The Museum of London (Docklands), The Bloomsbury Festival and Up Projects, amongst many others. She has presented her work at Unit 1 Gallery, LCN (SPACE), The End of the Road festival, Nunnery Gallery, Akkigalleria, Finland, and Shunt Lounge. 

www.emilytracy.co.uk

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Contributors

Photography: Azqueta-arts

Teachers
Abhida Ashraf – South Park Primary School; Harmeet Basra – Goodmayes Primary School; Jahanara Begum – Woodlands Primary School; Joanna Porter – Glade Primary School; Mahnoor Ahsan – Parkhill Junior School; Marianne Carlton – Beal High School; Max Hinds – Avanti Court Primary School; Natalie Castellanos – Parkhill Junior School; Rehana Fazil – Cranbrook Primary School; Rosie Sawyer – Rhodes Avenue Primary; Saima Chishty – Barley Lane Primary School; Shabana Begum – Gearies Primary School; Sharon Sondh – Parkhill Junior School; Sophie Mayor – Beal High School; Tina Fresco – John Bramston; Yasmin Ahmed – South Park Primary.

Also with thanks to: Carola Geist Divver, Carole Mansfield, Clive Power, Darryl Payne, Dave Drury, Debbie Chapman, Elaine Jean Hobbs, Iain Lucey, Linda Connor, Madiha Naem, Martin Fairhurst, Meera Sweets, Paul Hammond, Phil Nichols, Sarah Newham, Sharon Moore, Velurajah Selliah, Wayne Beauchamp.

With thanks to
Faisal Bashir – Senior Library Assistant at Redbridge Central Library
Vision Redbridge Culture & Leisure
Redbridge Museum & Heritage Centre
Ilford in Pictures Facebook group
Cyril Bekoe, Ilford Bid
Andrew Brown