A5, 75 pages, Colour printing, Perfect bound, Softcover, 2024

Island of Us: conversations about justice with children is inspired by a week-long project with Chisenhale Primary School, at Chisenhale Gallery. Led by artist Jack Young, using the methodology of Philosophy for Children, each class carefully considered questions of justice and freedom, conjuring up imaginaries of how life would be organised on the ‘Island of Us’. 

Island of Us is an invitation to think about the kind of world we live in and how it might be otherwise. Taking place across one week at the end of the summer term, over 300 pupils from Chisenhale Primary School took over Chisenhale Gallery in response to Rory Pilgrim’s exhibition pink and green. Drawing on the island location of the exhibition and its explorations of justice and freedom with men incarcerated at HMP Portland, students spent the week as artists, exploring the complicated issue of how we should treat people who might have hurt others. Through island-dreaming, fables, manifesto-making, and populating the island with people, places, plants, and buildings, the students used art to imagine the kind of world we want to live in. The book showcases their collaborative work and the discussions that took place. It also includes session plans, resources and inspiration for artists and educators to initiate related projects in the classroom or elsewhere.

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