Multimedia artist Jazz Grant has been searching through the collections at V&A East Storehouse, finding inspiration for a new mural commission for Hackney Central Library to be unveiled in 2026. Jazz is renowned for her mixed media collages and stop-motion animations and has created murals for Jay-Z’s Book of HOV exhibition, cover art for Dazed magazine, as well as partnerships with brands like Burberry, Gucci, and adidas. She employs a meticulous process of sourcing, photographing, and hand-cutting materials to create her pieces.
As the recipient of Hackney Council’s 2025 Windrush Amplified Art Grant, Jazz began her research residency at V&A East Storehouse by reflecting on her personal heritage and what resonances she could find with objects and archives within the V&A’s collection. On Saturday 4 October, as part of Hackney’s Black History Season, Jazz led a drop-in show-and-tell session of the objects she’s been researching at V&A East Storehouse. You can now also see her objects in a new display on Level 2 in Storehouse which we’ve just unveiled.
Here’s what she found.
Jamaican Lacebark Mat
Jazz describes how she started by searching out ‘the oldest thing that I could find that was Jamaican. What came up was this Jamaican bark lace mat. It was really beautiful, a very delicate item that I found really inspiring and in fact, I was able to incorporate into the final collage, which was the goal of my residency at V&A East Storehouse’.
The mat is made from lacebark, the bark of the lagetta lagetto tree which when peeled off the tree can be stretched to form a web of threads to make a natural lace akin to embroidery net or a loose weave muslin. Lacebark was used as the base material to produce decorative items, such as this mat, or fans like this one also in the V&A’s collection. Lacebark was used as the base material for other designs to be stitched onto it. The mat Jazz examined was decorated with a fringe of calotropis procrea, borders of cabbage palm and breadfruit and a central motif of ferns.
Costume designs of Peter Minshall
Jazz expanded her search into the work of Trinidadian carnival designer Peter Minshall. The first thing she looked at was a design for the costume of the Sun for a production of Beauty and the Beast performed by the Scottish Ballet at Sadler’s Wells theatre in 1969.
Jazz described how she saw this costume design for the character of the sun for the Scottish National Ballet’s 1969 production of Beauty and the Beast on Explore the Collections and had ‘expected it to be a drawing. So when I saw it in real life in the Study Room at V&A East Storehouse, it was really amazing to see that it was actually a physical mosaic, a piece of artwork with loads of textures, made up of different kinds of items. It really surprising in the best way’.
Quote: “It was one of those moments where you realise it is better to see a thing in real life because it might surprise you.”
This experience led Jazz to order up more objects created by Minshall, including this cloak he created for Trinidadian Mustapha Matura’s satirical play Play Mas. The Caribbean term ‘play mas’ (meaning to participate in a parade or carnival ) originated when enslaved people in the Caribbean, predominantly from West Africa, started to satirise the elaborate ‘mas’ or masquerades of 18th century plantation owners. After the abolition of slavery in 1834, carnival took to the streets and formerly enslaved people celebrated their freedom and commemorated their ancestors.
Minshall’s designs captured the riotous extravagance of carnival while posing the question: ‘If carnival and playing mas can change the character of the wearer then what effect would such a costume have on whoever chooses it?’
Jazz was interested how Minshall collaged together found objects to create this remarkable, layered costume. ‘There’s a kind of celebratory chaos to it’, she explains. Through this object she could think ‘about carnival through a historic lens’.
National Dance Theatre of Jamaica poster
Jazz also selected this poster. ‘I just love the design’, she says. ‘I think it’s really lively, really fun, but also very slick and very elegant and it’s using a printing process that I’m like looking to incorporate into my practice’.
Mary Hogarth’s embroidered screen
Jazz’s final object was a screen embroidered by Mary Hogarth in the 1920s. Jazz selected it as she is ‘specifically looking at room dividers or screens because I really love this idea of an artwork taking up space in a way that’s almost like a piece of furniture but it’s also still like an artwork. It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for my own practice generally anyway. All the hand embroidered abstract shapes also feel relevant as hand embroidery is something I’ve been bringing into my practice as well’.
To Travel This Ship
Named after James Berry’s poem, the final collage was also unveiled during Jazz’s drop-in session. The residency had given her ‘time for reflection, time for research’. In the spirit of Peter Minshell’s costumes she wanted the collage to ‘feel very lively, almost chaotic’ but also ‘settled’. Referencing the lacebark mat she has included foliage and fruits that related to her Jamaican ancestry as well as to the plants she sees around London today. The bright colours were chosen to communicate hope. Also within the collage are photographs taken by Howard Grey, when he was very young, at Waterloo Station of people arriving from the Caribbean. Jazz describes how ‘he took these photographs on a camera without any flash. And when he went to get them developed, they were too dark to see. He kept them in a drawer for fifty years until one day he was watching a programme that explained new processes where you could lighten even the darkest images and they all came to light. And they were really stunning’.
Come and see Jazz’s objects at V&A East Storehouse
You can come and view what Jazz found at V&A East Storehouse in a new display on Level 2. The display includes her collage that will be the basis for the Hackney Central Library mural.
Reflecting on her new display, Jazz shared:
“Looking through V&A East Storehouse’s range of collections was incredible, and I can’t wait for the public to also share in this experience through my display. From studying precious fish scales and ancient beads with a magnifying glass, to being led up a ladder to view an Indian cave painting, the museum allowed me to fully immerse myself in the stories of the objects and deepen my historical and cultural understanding. This display is an expression of my creativity, Jamaican heritage and Hackney’s rich culture and history and I’m honoured to have been selected by the Hackney Council Windrush Amplified Art Grant to tell my story. I’ve visited the V&A throughout my life, so it’s almost surreal partnering with V&A East Storehouse to display my work alongside artists I admire.”
Over to you?
Inspired to use Order-an-Object and begin your own research into our collections? It’s free and available 7 days a week, even during our evening openings on Thursdays and Saturdays. With over 340,000 objects to choose from, find out how to choose your first objects to have some 1:1 time with here Order an Object · V&A
