English Magic

by JErEMy DEllErrEsourcE for tEachErs of KEy stagE 2

bristol Museum & art gallery 12 April – 21 September 2014

turner contemporary, Margate11 October 2014 – 11 January 2015

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Who is Jeremy Deller?

Born 1966 in London

Studied at Dulwich College, London; the Courtauld Institute of

Art (University of London); completed his MA in Art History at

University of Sussex.

Met Andy Warhol in 1986 and spent two weeks at ‘The Factory’,

Warhol’s studio in New York.

Started making artworks in the early 1990s. In 1993, while his

parents were on holiday (he was still living at home), he used the

family home for an exhibition titled Open Bedroom.

Won the Turner Prize in 2004, dedicating his award to “everyone

who cycles, everyone who cycles in London, everyone who looks

after wildlife, and the Quaker movement.”

Joy in People, a mid-career survey, opened at the Hayward

Gallery, London, while Sacrilege, a bouncy castle modeled on

Stonehenge, toured the country during the summer of 2012.

Key features of his work:

• Often collaborative

• Strong political aspect

• Can be ephemeral i.e. resists being a commodity

• Sense of ‘Britishness’

• Can be humorous

“Jeremy is one of the pioneers of a group of artists who started working in a different way in the early 90s – working collabora-tively, working with different kinds of social groups, making work which was not so much about making an object as creating a situation. They really pushed the idea of what could constitute a work of art.” - Ralph Rugoff

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/feb/17/jeremy-deller-

hayward-retrospective

This resource is designed to

• help you with planning and

preparing your class visit to the

exhibition

• support you on your visit

• provide information about the artist

and his work

• provide ideas for follow-up activities

• encourage individual and

collaborative creative work

• encourage cross-curricular work

Jeremy Deller was commissioned by the British Council to

represent Britain in the British Pavilion at the 55th Venice

Biennale in 2013. Seen by over 350,000 people, English Magic

reflected many essential themes of Deller’s work. He called it

‘English’ to make the point that although he is in the British

Pavilion – Gran Bretagna – Wales and Scotland have their own

pavilions now. ‘Magic’ seems to refer to the way in which he

weaves together past, present and future to create mythical

or fantasy scenarios. He focuses on British society - its people,

icons, myths and folklore, together with its cultural and political

history. Jeremy Deller works across time, bringing together

events from the past, present and an imagined future, for

example William Morris (1834 – 1896) meets Roman Abramovich

(Russian businessman and currently owner of Chelsea FC).

He also collaborates with a wide range of people including

archaeologists, musicians, bird sanctuaries, prisoners and

painters.

The exhibition has a mix of objects including flints and

woodblocks, along with paintings made directly on the wall.

There is a ten minute film that brings together many of the ideas

and objects presented in the exhibition, which was extremely

popular in Venice. The artist also has a focus on people including

Tony Blair, Prince Harry, and Roman Abramovich, who could be

called ‘tricksters’ who turn public resources into private gains.

There is a short film with Jeremy Deller just before his opening at

Venice, which gives a good overview of how he thinks about the

exhibition.

http://venicebiennale.britishcouncil.org/media/video/item/jeremy-deller-interview-venice-2013

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The themes of English Magic are: tradition; folk; magic; money;

class; decoration; humour; irony.

We suggest three key themes for follow-up ideas:

storiEs (blogs, fantasy, Myths, Magic)

DEcoration (craft, wooDblocKs, wallpapEr, williaM Morris, bannErs)

Music (Mixing anD Matching, cultural forMs, fashion, DaviD bowiE)

Before your visit

in class explain to the children who the artist is, and a bit about

the exhibition. see appendix 1 for more information. then test

their understanding through a memory quiz:

What five things stand out to you about the artist?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Explain what your class will be doing on your visit – creating a

quiz

The plan is to get enough information from the exhibition to

make a quiz.

• To select images and information from the galleries

• To create a quiz, creatively consolidating knowledge and

understanding

• To develop skills in media literacy

• To work collaboratively

Ideally, show your class these examples of some quiz questions

below before your visit to establish their task. Explain the task to

all supporting adults.

Each group will need a sketchbook and/or note pad and, if

possible, a camera. It helps for each child to be able to make

their own notes and sketches as they explore the galleries. This is

what they will be asked to do:

English Magic quiz - Class Task

Your task is to take photographs, make drawings and gather

information during your visit to the exhibition.

See how creative you can be with questions and photographs,

because you will be using the images and information back in

class to make a quiz.

At the exhibition:

In groups of 5, explore the exhibition and find out interesting

information. Together, talk about ideas and select some objects

to draw and photograph, that you can use to create questions.

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For example, you might draw a bit, or all, of this image:

Examples of some quiz questions:

1. Who is this?

2. Whose boat is it?

3. What is a colossus?

4. How do you think this man feels?

5. What title would you give this artwork?

Or

1. What does this map show?

2. Who was David Bowie?

not all of your questions have to have a ‘right’ answer, some

could be about describing a work, or giving an opinion.

Decide how you will mark the quiz, and explain your marking

scheme to the class.

You might want to give marks for:

• interesting questions and relevant information chosen

• creative photographs and layout of quiz questions

• answering questions correctly during quiz

• additional information and relevant discussion during quiz.

You might also want to give marks for:

• good team work

• good behaviour during the Museum visit

• IT skills in producing the quiz questions.

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At the exhibition

All these activities will prepare you for both making and

answering the quiz.

working in groups: split into groups of 5 or 6

Find:

• A flint

• A William Morris woodblock

• A banner

• A drawing

• Something to do with music

In your groups, choose one of these to look at more closely.

One person explains to the others what you are looking at: the

others turn around and listen to his/her description.

Then, pick something different from the list.

Answer these three questions in the group – take it in turns to

answer. Listen carefully to each other and everyone should try to

answer the questions.

Why do you think the artist made this artwork? Does this

artwork express emotion? Look at the title – why does it have

this title?

Find a friend. Have a look at the work called You have the

watches, we have the time.

Some of these are portraits of people working in government,

drawn by prisoners who have come back from being in the army

and based in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.

In your pairs, draw portraits of each other in 5 mins. Take it in

turns to do it, so you have time to really look at each other.

Jeremy Deller uses banners to tell us something. Have a look

at all the banners and write them down. Next to each one,

write a bit about what you think the words are trying to tell us.

For example, there is one with this on it: ooh-oo-hoo ah-ha ha

yeah…

In your sketchbooks, do a set of four small sketches of

something you like in the exhibition, and say why you have

chosen each one.

Explore as much as you can as your friends will be setting you

quiz questions about the visit too. Keep your questions secret

from other groups so that you can test them back in school. You

might get the chance in the exhibition to do a woodblock print

using one of Jeremy Deller’s images, so that can also go in your

sketchbook.

1.

1.a

1.b

2.

3.

4.

you will need sketchbooks or

paper; pencils, pens, and, if

possible, a camera.

Things to see

in bristol only:

One of the big paintings in English Magic is called A Good Day

for Cyclists. It shows an enormous bird of prey – a hen harrier –

clutching a tiny 4x4 car in its claws.

In the British Wildlife gallery (first floor) there are two hen

harriers on display – find them and compare their actual size

with the painting.

In the Geology gallery (first floor) there is a fossilized fragment

of a huge dragonfly. Find the model that shows what the

dragonfly looked like and draw it.

at turnEr contEMporary only:

There is a small selection of paintings and drawings by JMW

Turner (1775 – 1851). He used to visit Margate often and stayed

on this very spot when he came here from London on the

steamboat.

• What connections can you find between the work of JMW

Turner and Jeremy Deller?

• Which two works of Turner and Deller would you pair up and

why?

Downstairs at Turner Contemporary you can find an exhibition

by another contemporary artist, Edmund De Waal. He has made

these works just for us here at Turner Contemporary.

• Why do you think he chose to make this work for this space?

• How would it be different if it were shown somewhere else,

such as in your school or a museum?

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After your visit

the QuizGroups work together to prepare quiz presentations which could

use the following software.

• PowerPoint, great for using your close up pictures, asking

questions, setting up multiple choice or true and false!

• If you have a Smartboard running SynchronEyes software 7.0

or later, you have a quiz wizard which you can use to make

quizzes.

Make sure the class is not able to look at each other’s quiz

questions until the actual quiz. It is good to encourage group

discussion and an answer sheet completed by each group could

be used.

Run the full class quiz. Allot marks according to your marking

scheme.

theme one: stories

The hen harrier is a really rare bird in the UK.

What is rare in Bristol/Kent?

Birds?

Flowers?

Do research using the internet.

Write a review of the exhibition in the form of a blog, if you are

using an iPad or computer.

A blog is a frequently updated online personal journal or diary. It

is a place to express yourself to the world. A place to share your

thoughts and your passions. Really, it’s anything you want it to

be.

Jeremy Deller feels passionately about things like cycling.

What do you feel passionately about?

Write a story about this.

The artist has made up stories – bringing fact and fiction

together.

What is magic to you? Is it about tricks or inventing something

that isn’t real?

If you could do magic, what would you change?

Write a story about how the hen harrier got so big and what

happens next.

or

Imagine if the car and the bird could talk – what conversation are

they having?

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Illustrate your story with pictures

Here is a template - an outline of the hen harrier painting. Copy

and enlarge it for your class.

Fill it with a collage of other images of birds - from magazines,

the internet or just draw them.

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theme two: Decoration

What is it? What is craft?

Who was William Morris?

Why does Jeremy Deller like him so much?

What are banners for?

Make a banner as a group – what is it of? A magical fantasy?

Design your own banner of something you care about / that

matters to you. Will it be words and /or pictures?

Design your own badge using things you care about.

Jeremy Deller makes art about things that annoy him. What

annoys you?

Design your own wallpaper based on this. Mix and match like

Jeremy Deller does – he takes different things like an enormous

William Morris and puts him in the present day holding a yacht –

the object that annoyed him.

how to do a repeat pattern:

On a clean piece of paper draw

a design in the middle of your

paper without letting any of the

drawing touch the edges- this is

very important.

I have done this, using the hen

harrier outline, and the outline

of a flint, along with some leaves

from William Morris wallpaper

and the lines from the map of

where Bowie went on tour. See

end of pack for these.

Once you finish the middle

space, you are going to cut

your drawing in half... Once you

have done that, turn them over

and tape your drawing back

together. Put the tape on the

back of the paper so it doesn’t

obstruct your drawing at all later.

Also try to tape your drawing

back together as perfectly lined

up as possible.

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Next you are going to cut your

drawing in half again the other

way – and then turn those pieces

and tape them back together.

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Now your design should be on

all the edges only and you have

a big middle white space.

Now fill this space with the

rest of your design. Remember

again - do not draw to any of the

edges of the paper.

Once you finish filling in all the

parts you want to fill in you

now have your repeat. You

could colour this in and then

photocopy it many times. Or you

can scan the drawing, use Adobe

Illustrator, colour and repeat it

there.

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theme three: Music

1. Mix two different styles of music together – what happens?

What if you went back in time and re-created something that

happened?

2. Research David Bowie. Listen to his music and what he used

to wear (hint – he was also known as Ziggy Stardust).

3. What musician or bands do you like? Try to find out where

they go on tour. Make a map of this using black tape or string

on a map of England – as big as possible.

4. The work in the exhibition also shows what was happening

in England at that time. Cut out images from newspapers

from the last few weeks. Add them to this map of England

(you can photocopy the map to make it bigger if you like),

to make a large collage. You might also decide to add some

words form the newspapers as well, to add to the image.

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Resources

“I went from an artist who makes things, to an artist who makes things happen.

“Britain is a very fertile place to make art, it’s full of contradictions: we have this colonial past..., we have a class system that’s fully functioning, we have a disparity between rich and poor, we have a royal family...”- English Magic catalogue p.90

“A lot of people work with groups, but it’s all very worthy but not that interesting. Jeremy puts his finger on things and touches nerves in the national psyche. He’s done things in a playful way, with a resonant, big imagination behind his work, that goes way beyond the art world and reaches a much wider audience.” - Ralph Rugoff, Director, Hayward Gallery, London

“Like all artists, he comes from somewhere that’s not particularly obvious. He sets out to look at the human condition and work it out through ramblers or smokers or rose queens or whatever. He’s not interested in the lofty aspirations of the concert hall or the gallery. If one definition of an artist is to put mirrors up to ourselves, I think he fulfils that.” - Ed Hall (makes the banners for Jeremy Deller)

“Jeremy struck us as very humble and down to earth, which surprised us – because he is to the art world what Lewis Hamilton is to Formula One. I was taken aback by his genuine interest in us.

“Because of this experience, I and another of the ex-servicemen have enlisted in an art class. We are grateful for the experience.” - Inmate and ex-serviceman, Shotts prison, Lanarkshire(contributed to the work called ‘You Have the Watches, We Have the Time’, Harrowdown Hill, Longworth, UK, 17 July 2003)

“I’d worked with Jeremy before, for a project about unrealised works called My Failures: I supplied a number of drawings. His part is the concept, mine the execution, and the collaboration comes in the discussion of technique, impact, what materials to use, that sort of thing. For this work, we decided on acrylic paint, which is the most effective in such a bright room. In January, I started doing a number of studies on my own studio wall and went to a breakers yard to take photographs of crushed cars. Then, from February until the end of April, I was in Venice. To be able to work on a piece every day was amazing.” - Sarah Tynan, who painted the work A good day for cyclists.

things Jeremy Deller has said:

what others have said about him:

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Links to interviews and articlesIf you watch just one video about him, watch this one:

http://vimeo.com/37458448

Other interesting interviews:

http://www.wellingvisualarts.org/a-conversation-between-jeremy-deller-and-henry-ward.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1e3fbcca-f9c4-11e2-b8ef-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2sABNSrSO

http://www.bidoun.org/magazine/28-interviews/jeremy-deller-with-sukhdev-sandhu/

About English Magic:

http://www.artandeducation.net/paper/a-brief-history-of-i-giardini-or-a-brief-history-of-the-venice-biennale-seen-from-the-giardini/

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jun/04/roman-abramovich-upsets-venetians-view

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/may/30/jeremy-deller-venice-biennale-allstars

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/a-morris-and-de-morgan-tile-panel/

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/videos/b/video-block-printed-wallpaper/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly_(weapons_expert)

http://www.melodiansuk.co.uk/the-melodians-at-abbey-road-studios/

http://www.koestlertrust.org.uk/pages/aboutus.html

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Appendix One: English Magic

For the British Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition

– la Biennale di Venezia, Jeremy Deller presented the exhibition

English Magic. It ran from 1st June to 24th November 2013 and

was seen by 350,000 people.

The Biennale has taken place in Venice since 1895, happening

every two years between June and November, showcasing

international contemporary art. It is based in the Giardini

(Garden) at the tip of Venice, pointing towards the Lido. Today,

there are 30 national pavilions representing 34 countries, the last

having been built by South Korea in 1995. In this centenary year,

the Biennale offered countries without pavilions the possibility

of exhibiting at chosen sites made available by the city, private

owners, cultural institutions or the Church. This continues today -

countries such as Wales, Scotland, Iran, Macedonia and Ireland all

hold exhibitions in alternative spaces and palazzos across Venice.

Initiated in 1980, the Aperto (Open) began as a fringe event for

younger artists and artists of a national origin not represented by

the permanent national pavilions. Staged in the Arsenale (the old

naval docks), that are close to the Giardini, it has now become

part of the Biennale programme.

The exhibition brings together many of Jeremy Deller’s interests:

the diverse nature of British society, and parts of its history. He

called it ‘English’ to make the point that although he is in the

British Pavilion – Gran Bretagna – Wales and Scotland have their

own pavilions now. He questions what it means to be British/

English. ‘Magic’ seems to refer to the way in which he has

weaved together past, present and future to create mythical or

fantasy scenarios.

The exhibition brings together a mix of objects – flints,

woodblocks – along with paintings made directly on the wall.

There is a ten minute film that brings together many of the

ideas and objects presented in the exhibition, and which was

extremely popular in Venice. As Hal Foster points out in the

catalogue, Deller also has a focus on people – Tony Blair, Prince

Harry, Roman Abramovich – that could be called ‘tricksters’ –

turning public resources into private gains.

This large wall painting shows William Morris as a ‘colossus’,

able to pick up a yacht and throw it into the water. The yacht

‘Luna’ belongs to Roman Abramovich, and in 2011 he moored it

alongside the Giardini, blocking the view and restricting access

to the promenade.

Alongside the painting are examples of Morris’s work; and a

collection of framed privitisation certificates and coupons which

venice biennale 2013

“Britain is a very fertile place to make art, it’s full of contradictions: we have this colonial past..., we have a class system that’s fully functioning, we have a disparity between rich and poor, we have a royal family...” - English Magic catalogue p.90

Magic is the ability to influence the course of events through the use of mysterious or supernatural forces- dictionary definition

“(I wish to)..evoke the mythical qualities of popular culture and its abilities to weave spells, especially in music”- English Magic catalogue, p.7

We sit starving amidst our goldPainted by Stuart Sam Hughes

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appeared after the collapse of the Soviet Union (from 26

Dec 1991). The documents, representing shares in previously

nationalised industries, were issued in an attempt to distribute

the new private wealth evenly among citizens. In practice, a

select few profited by deceitfully impoverishing the many.

“Many of today’s Russian oligarchs assembled their wealth as a result of gaming the voucher system, leveraging individual shares from factory workers and amassing controlling shares of the formerly state-run conglomerates.” - Justinian Jampol, English Magic catalogue, p.44

This image shows socialism overthrowing greed – Morris returns

from the past to stem the tide of capitalism!

The painter Stuart Sam Hughes has worked with Deller since

2005. He painted another mural in Venice – St Helier on fire 2017.

“I met Jeremy in 2005 when he was wanting some tea urns painted. I helped with his Joy in People show last year, then he asked if I fancied doing murals for Venice. My other paintings are on either side of the door: they show a street scene of St Helier, the Jersey tax haven, as it is being burned down. I painted that with two Italian students. It’s great that Jeremy went out of his way to include local people. William Morris, at the age I painted him, had become very political and Jeremy thought Abramovich’s money and dealings would have gone against his views.”

Jeremy Deller admires William Morris for his beliefs and values.

He is interested in Morris as both a socialist and a designer.

For English Magic, he has borrowed a set of Morris’s original

woodblocks, and an impressive tile panel Morris designed

with the ceramist William de Morgan. Morris’s wallpapers were

hand-printed from wooden blocks. Even though this was time-

consuming and expensive, he thought the results far outshone

the machine-printed wallpapers produced by many Victorian

factories.

“For me William Morris is a fascinating character who wore his heart on his sleeve, mixing politics and art in a way no one has managed to since. Morris lived through a tumultuous period and tried to make sense of the industrial revolution in his work – he had about 10 different careers.” - Jeremy Deller

William Morris (1834 –1896) was an English textile designer,

artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite

Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement.

In 1859 he married Jane Burden, an unconventional beauty and a

favourite model for the Pre-Raphaelites. They moved into

Roman Abramovich

is a Russian businessman, known

for being the owner of Chelsea

Football Club. He is the 50th

richest person in the world

(Forbes, 2012). His partner,

Dasha Zhukova, runs an interna-

tional centre for contemporary

art in Moscow.

“the ‘peace’ of Commercialism is not peace, but bitter war, and the ghastly waste of Lancashire and the ever-spreading squalor of London are at least object-lessons to teach us that this is so […] the artifi-cial famine of inequality, felt in so many other ways, impoverish[es] us despite of our riches; and we sit starving amidst our gold, the Midas of the ages.”- The Socialist Ideal, William Morris, 1891

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their newly commissioned ‘Red House’, built by his friend, the

architect Philip Webb. Morris wanted a modern home which

would nevertheless be ‘very medieval in spirit’. Morris, with

the help of friends, spent the next two years furnishing and

decorating the interior. From this, they decided to start their

own company. In April 1861 Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. was

established at 8 Red Lion Square in London. It produced a range

of original domestic furnishings including embroidery, tableware

and furniture, stained glass and tiles. Wallpapers were soon

added to the list because Morris was unable to find any he liked

well enough to use in his own home.

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. profoundly influenced the

decoration of churches and houses into the early 20th century.

Morris was also a major contributor to reviving traditional textile

arts and methods of production, and one of the founders of the

Society of the Preservation of Ancient Buildings.

At the age of 49, he became a revolutionary socialist and

founded the Socialist League in 1884. He had always felt uneasy

about the disparity between his comfortable lifestyle and the

conditions endured by most of the British working class. Now

he worked to overthrow the system that enabled the rich to

profit from their labour, going on marches, founding newspapers

and lecturing all over the country. Morris’s political activities

shocked many of his friends, but he didn’t see campaigning as

incompatible with his design work. He deeply regretted that

his products were so expensive, and wanted to create a society

where everyone lived comfortably in beautiful surroundings.

Another striking wall painting is of a larger than life, protected

bird of prey – a hen harrier – increasingly rare in the UK. It is

persecuted by those wishing to hunt grouse, a game bird that

the hen harrier attacks. In its claws lies a red 4 x4; the bird taking

revenge on those that shoot at it. Again, ‘magic’ plays its part,

as Deller imagines another colossus – a huge bird able to attack

back.

Deller got the idea after reading an article in the Daily Mail in

2007. Two hen harriers were shot over the Queen’s estate at

Sandringham, Norfolk, while Prince Harry, his friend William van

Cutsem and a gamekeeper were out duck shooting. All three

were questioned by police but released without charge after

they denied any knowledge of the incident.

“It has been good fun working with Jeremy. He’s very interested in col-laboration, just as Morris was – he set up a design company and made everything with friends and family. It was always a collaborative effort, a social experience, everyone enjoy-ing making things together. Jeremy has presented Morris as someone raging against the times. I suspect he thinks Morris would be just as enraged by how we live today as he was in his own era.”- Anna Mason, curator at the William Morris Gallery, London

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This is painted by Sarah Tynan, born in 1986; she finished her MA

in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2012.

“I’d worked with Jeremy before, for a project about unrealised works called My Failures: I supplied a number of drawings. His part is the concept, mine the execution, and the collaboration comes in the discussion of technique, impact, what materials to use, that sort of thing. For this work, we decided on acrylic paint, which is the most effective in such a bright room. In January, I started doing a number of studies on my own studio wall and went to a breakers yard to take photographs of crushed cars. Then, from February until the end of April, I was in Venice. To be able to work on a piece every day was amazing.”- Sarah Tynan

St Helier on Fire 2017 is also done by Stuart Sam Hughes. It

depicts an imaginary moment, when St Helier, the capital of

Jersey is set alight by people protesting about inequality. Part

of the Channel Islands, Jersey is known as a tax haven, enabling

businesses and individuals to evade paying tax.

Alongside this are banners made by Ed Hall. They show diagrams

–coloured lines and rectangles - that resemble faces, but are

actually plans of tax avoidance structures. The pink one depicts

transfer pricing; the green one is the Jersey cash box.

Ed Hall is another person that has collaborated with the artist

many times before. The banners are very labour-intensive, as

all the lettering is appliqued, so they have to be drawn out then

stitched.

“With Jeremy, the design process goes extremely smoothly. He is very clear about what he wants. I produce sketches and he comes back to me with comments. Sometimes the ideas go straight through, sometimes things are changed quite dramatically.

“Trade union banners have been around since about 1830. British ones tend to be pictorial. They have this spiritual nature: the aspirations of the working person. I think the combination of history and design is why Jeremy is attracted to them.”

The film called English Magic brings together many of the

ideas within the artworks. The music in it is performed by the

Melodians Steel Orchestra from South London. They were asked

to record three tracks that sum up British music for the artist.

They are:

1. Excerpts from Symphony No 5. In D, 3rd movement by Ralph

Vaughn Williams

2. Voodoo Ray by A Guy Called Gerald

3. The Man Who Sold The World by David Bowie

St Helier on Fire 2017

“I first met Jeremy in 1999. I mainly make banners for campaigners or trade unions and I was putting up a stall at the Lambeth country show near Brixton in London. It was 8.30 in the morning and Jeremy was wan-dering over the field. We spoke for half an hour and then, a few months later, he phoned me up.”- Ed Hall

Ooh-oo-hoo-ah-ha ha yeahAbbey Road Studios,

London, 18 Mar 2013

A good day for cyclistsPainted by Sarah Tynan

The title reflects Deller’s

frustration at cycling in London,

pushed off roads by the ‘Chelsea

Tractors’.

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This took place at Abbey Road Studios, synonymous with the

Beatles - for Deller this was another metaphor for the exhibition

– the ‘magical mystery tour’. Sixteen of the band played at the

official Venice opening. To view the film, visitors are invited to sit

on a crushed 4x4 – they see their ‘chair’ being crushed as part

of the film, and it also links to the small car held in the huge hen

harrier claws.

Deller is very keen on music and bands. His connection to the

Melodians came through the leader of the band reading about

him in the Guardian.

“The work (Vaughan Williams) transferred very well and Jeremy had strong views about how it had to be done, which was helpful. The steel pan has a wonderful floaty sound. Any piece of music can be played on it – even string sounds. I’m always amazed by this. You just do a gentle roll. It all worked beautifully. The piece took me a day to arrange and we had our first meeting last autumn. It’s different from the type of rhythmic stuff the steel band usually play. You could see the members thinking: “Oh my goodness!” But they slowly fell in love with it.” - Anne Hornby, musical arranger

The result is an EP, pressed by the only surviving record pressing

plant left – EMI at Hayes. Around the copper records in the

show are a number of flints, some owned by the artist that were

bought at auction or online.

When you play vinyl, you hear a particular sound. Vinyl is really important to us and to Jeremy. It gives a distinct experience of music, not to mention the sleeve artwork and the tactile nature of the record. - Sean Bidder, the Vinyl Factory

There are also paleolithic hand axes (250,000 – 300,000 years

old). One was found in a gravel pit in Hayes in 1919 when the EMI

plant – the Vinyl Factory -was being built…

“To see him make that kind of connection is great. All the axes in the show were made by somebody: they were artists and craftspeople in their own right.” - Caroline McDonald, curator at the Museum of London

Another connection is made by Deller in the work Bevan tried

to change the nation, which brings together events from a

particular moment in time. A map of the UK draws out the full

extent of David Bowie tour dates starting 29 Jan 1972 for 18

months, playing as Ziggy Stardust and going on to have a huge

impact on young people – another kind of myth-making.

“Jeremy had worked with a small steel band before, but we’re a big orchestra – 30 people in all – with cello pans, bass pans and so on. He attended about 10 rehearsals. It didn’t take us too long to learn the pieces.”- Terry Noel

Bevan tried to change the nationVarious cities and towns across

the UK, Jan 1972 – July 1973

At the same time, on 30 Jan 1972, 26 people were shot by British

soldiers in Londonderry, Northern Ireland – 14 of whom died.

Deller brings together images around the UK map, showing

bombed buildings i.e. Londonderry Guildhall, and Ziggy playing

at Southampton Guildhall. Reality and fantasy – music as a form

of escapism.

You have the watches, we have the time is a set of drawings

made by prisoners in the UK, many of whom are former soldiers

who served in Iran and Afghanistan. They are of people, like

Dr David Kelly and Tony Blair who have a connection to these

conflicts; and depictions of what life is like in the army.

Dr David Kelly was a British scientist and expert on biological

warfare, employed by the British Ministry of Defence, and

formerly a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. He killed

himself on 17 July 2003, at Harrowdown Hill, a mile from his

home, under huge stress from the media and his potential

involvement about Saddam Hussein’s weapons capability.

“A year ago, he told me he wanted to include prisoners’ art in the Biennale. He held drawing workshops in three prisons with inmates who are ex-servicemen – their numbers are disproportionately high among prisoners. He wanted them to draw their experiences on the front line as members of the forces.

“One prisoner felt the process of drawing an incident he had been involved in in Northern Ireland, where there had been terrible casualties, was the first time he had managed to successfully communicate how he felt about it. While there are therapeutic benefits for the offenders, we also get the work seen by the public. We want the world to see that, while prisoners have done wrong, they are also human beings.” - Tim Robertson, chief executive, the Koestler Trust

The Koestler Trust is the UK’s best-known prison arts charity.

They exhibit and sell artworks by offenders, detainees and

secure patients in order to help them lead more positive lives by

motivating them to participate and achieve in the arts.

you have the watches, we have the timeHarrowdown Hill, Longworth,

UK, 17 July 2003

London, 18 Mar 2013

“Jeremy struck us as very humble and down to earth, which surprised us – because he is to the art world what Lewis Hamilton is to Formula One. I was taken aback by his genu-ine interest in us.

“Because of this experience, I and another of the ex-servicemen have enlisted in an art class. We are grateful for the experience.” - Inmate and ex-serviceman, Shotts prison, Lanarkshire

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Further research

http://www.artandeducation.net/paper/a-brief-history-of-i-giardini-or-a-brief-history-of-the-venice-biennale-seen-from-the-giardini/

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jun/04/roman-abramovich-upsets-venetians-view

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/may/30/jeremy-deller-venice-biennale-allstars

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/a-morris-and-de-morgan-tile-panel/

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/videos/b/video-block-printed-wallpaper/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly_(weapons_expert)

http://www.melodiansuk.co.uk/the-melodians-at-abbey-road-studios/

http://www.koestlertrust.org.uk/pages/aboutus.html

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Appendix Two: Outlines used to

create wallpaper

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Written by Gill Nicol

March 2014