Derek Jarman

Writings on the pioneering, beloved experimental filmmaker and artist from critics, garden historians and Jarman collaborators Tilda Swinton and Simon Fisher Turner

Gathering newly commissioned essays devoted to specific--and sometimes lesser-known--aspects of the artist's life and work, and extensive portfolios spanning his oeuvre, this volume offers an accessible overview of Derek Jarman (1942-94), one of the legendary cultural figures of the postwar era. Jarman was an artist, filmmaker, musician and gay activist who powerfully marked British culture, from his first feature film Sebastiane (1976) to his videos for the Pet Shop Boys and Marianne Faithfull in the 1980s, from his AIDS activism to his cult film Blue (1993). Conceived as a reader, this volume includes essays by cultural critic Elisabeth Lebovici, curator Claire Le Restif and garden historian Marco Martella; an interview with Jarman's collaborator James Mackay; testimonies by actress Tilda Swinton and musician Simon Fisher Turner; and an illustrated chronology. Jarman's militant Queer Paintings series (1992), his Super8 films from the mid-1970s and his assemblages made at his legendary garden at Prospect Cottage in Kent are all discussed.