The year is 2090. The island of Thamesmead is separated by a river of dirty mud water
from the land-mass of London. The island is populated solely by children, who have lost all knowledge of their adult foremothers. All the adults were lost in 2021 when Thamesmead flooded, causing absolute destruction.
The children run their own assembly; they sleep in the warmth of never-ending fires; gather berries and herbs for their food; understand the world through technicolour; and live in harmony. They play among the marshes and the ancient concrete, and their days are focussed by a singular task: to gather remnants of their foremothers and understand their lost culture.
The Brightness of JuJu is a colour, a way of seeing and a way of being. It is a type of knowing, a type of playing, and a type of dreaming. Not the type of knowing that comes from school; but the type of knowing that comes from your body. It is colour-dreaming, metal-dreaming, fluff-dreaming, and plastic-dreaming. It is dreaming of a world where children live collectively, decide their own fate, and learn through play, poetry and exploration.
The Brightness of JuJu was born from the collective minds of 120 primary school children in Thamesmead, South East London; their ancestors; the detritus and treasure that surrounds them; and the artists Dunya Kalantery and Rima Patel over three years of collaboration. It was sent back in time to you in the form of a publication and a public sculpture in the new Thamesmead Library.