Annis Harrison
Memory
of Joy
Part 2
AN EXHIBITION AND SOUNDSCAPE
BY ANNIS HARRISON
The Exhibition
Memory of Joy Part 2 is an exhibition by Annis Harrison which combines painting, sound and moving image to create a multi-sensory experience of joy and remembrance, featuring a self-contained, sound system–inspired installation that blended interviews, sound effects and bass-heavy rhythms to create an immersive experience.
The inaugural show was at Sugar Island Gallery, London E15 in November 2025.
Here's a one-minute film about the exhibition.
"The sound is not just music, it’s resistance. The mango is not just fruit, it’s memory. The heritage is not just history, it’s joy. They’re all connected."
Annis Harrison interviewed by journalist Azieb Poole
The concept
The project began as a simple idea: Lets celebrate a collective joy from our past - part of a narrative that can get lost: the first, glorious, luscious taste of Caribbean fruit, for Afro Caribbean children in the drab, monochrome1970s.
The bursts of colour and shapes in this series of paintings celebrate that moment of abandon, where body and food bond. The curved, plump, and glistening forms of the paintings are as much mouths, teeth and lips as they are fleshy pieces of fruit.
A quick interview with Annis about developing the idea from these beginnings.
The soundscape
After securing Arts Council funding, Annis travelled around London to record the interviews that provided the content for the soundscape, capturing the conversations, the tales, the lyricism and the laughter of those Seventies children
Taking her inspiration from classic dub sound systems, Annis then worked with musicians, sound designers and producers, editing the interviews together with music and sound effects to create an immersive, sound-system experience, and building an enclosed sitting room-like environment within the gallery space.
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"Sound System culture is another form of joy as resistance. As soon as I feel that bass, it’s like a meditation. I can feel it physically moving through my body, the sense of release and escaping everyday life."
In this clip, Annis talking about the influence of sound system culture.