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My name's Graham and I am the Public Programs Coordinator for City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi. And at the moment we are standing in an exhibition which is being held at the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt. The exhibition is an exhibition of work by Derek Jarman. Um, which has been put on by City Gallery, um, along with, in partnership with Gus Fisher Gallery and has been hosted by the Dowse Art Museum. Bit complicated that one, but yes. [00:00:30] Has Derek Jarman been exhibited in New Zealand before? Uh, no, this is the first, um, solo show of his work that has been shown, so it's quite a coup in that sense. Yes, it's And, and it's, it's been a few decades now since he, he passed, was it 1994? Yes, it's 1994, so it's quite a timely opportunity to, um, to remember Derek, um, and to bring, um, some of these works to New Zealand.[00:01:00] Are you able to describe the space that we're standing in and what we can see? Yes, so, um, we are in what's called Gallery 1 of the Daoist, um, which is a series of about, uh, five different rooms. Um, the exhibition has a combination of different, um, Types of work. There are some large paintings around us from a series called the Evil Queen and there's also quite a number of [00:01:30] small selections of photographs taken by various people who knew Derek Chalmers such as Derek Brown Dennis Doran, Howard Suley, and these kind of are peppered around the exhibition space in, um, different vitrines and display cases. Um, there's also some, um, live film works in the exhibition. So we have, um, a couple of examples of Derek's, um, experimental short films playing in the exhibition space. And then just through to the [00:02:00] side, um, we have what are called the Black Paintings, which are a series of collage works. Well, starting with the room that we're in, and these evil queen paintings are just amazing, aren't they? Yeah, they're really, let's have a look at this one here. This is probably one of my, um, favourite works in the show. Um, I, I guess Uh, the painting that we're looking at is titled Blind Maniac, um, it's around about two meters [00:02:30] squared, I think, um, and it's predominantly black, um, oil paint, um, that's been smeared onto the canvas in this really viscous, uh, visceral way, you can kind of see handprints dragging, um, this red, orange, and black paint through, and then in the center we've got this text in, um, a kind of Deep, sickly, lurid green that says blind maniac and it's really just been scrawled across. So, I first saw this exhibition at Gus Fisher [00:03:00] Gallery in Auckland, um, where it was showing prior to coming down to Ellington. And this work really stuck with me because this is, um, one of the last paintings that, that Jarman made. Um, these were made, um, at a time where he was physically infirm, too physically infirm to actually make the paintings. And so these paintings were made as a collaborative effort with the assistance of, um, Keith Collins, HB, his partner, and other friends. Um, and so Jarman is kind of art directing these paintings. But [00:03:30] despite that, you can still feel this heavy, heavy sense of, um, rage, pain. But, you know, strength and mana kind of being, uh, transmuted through the works. Incredibly powerful. How, how have, um, audiences reacted to these paintings? I think this exhibition has been very meaningful for many people. Um, I think there are many people in the queer community that hold [00:04:00] Derek Jarman very close as a inspiration. Um, and, uh, to be able to, um, spend time with, and people in the arts, you know, It's, it's really amazing to be able to spend time, um, with works like these because they're so tactile. They're so, uh, like, you know, you look at the surface of this painting and, uh, to, to be able to, um, You know, to really have that opportunity to let the work kind of wash over you. Um, I [00:04:30] think it's also personally, um, significant and, and meaningful for people because, um, Jarman had lots of connections to Aotearoa, so in the course of, um, Researching and developing this show, our curators were approached a number of times by people who kind of came out of the woodwork and said, Oh, I was Jarman's nurse in London before he passed. And I was a soldier in War Requiem and, um, I'm Derek's cousin. [00:05:00] And so, you know, it's, it's, it's beautiful to see, uh, the ways that, um, this work already speaks to people and maybe the ways that we didn't know, uh, that he was already dead. Deeply connected here. We should also say that the um, soundtrack we're hearing in the background That this is part of Jarman's work as well. Yeah, that's right So the soundtrack that you can hear in the background is part of one of the experimental super 8 Films is a [00:05:30] piece called my very beautiful movie Which was originally recorded as a silent Film, of course, Super 8 has no ability to record audio. And so the soundtrack that you can hear is an interpretation, uh, that was commissioned by the Jarman Estate to accompany the work by a young composer whose name has escaped me, but I'm sure it's on the wall text. We can find it in a moment. Um, yeah, so it was really important for us to, um, kind of incorporate the, the many strands of Derek's practice into this exhibition. And, um, [00:06:00] well, he's perhaps best well known for his filmmaking, um, for his feature length filmmaking, I should say. Um, Derek made over 60 short experimental films before, uh, he made his first feature film, Sebastian. Um, and so, um, it was important to be able to show some of those lesser known works. And My Beautiful, I'm a very Beautiful movie. It's a great example of that. It was shot in the late 1970s, uh, during a trip to Fire Island in New York. Um, and in the film, you can see Jarman's kind of experimental approach [00:06:30] to, um, capturing, um, and create, Capturing images and creating effects in camera by using a piece of coloured glass which he's holding over the lens and he's moving at different distances from the lens and rotating so that it creates this kind of beautiful gradient of purples and violets and oranges. That's one of the um, stunning things I think about this exhibition is that you're really showcasing all his different strands of creativity, uh, and there are so many of them. [00:07:00] Yes, yes, well, it's really important to do that, and I think, um, it's hard to capture, um, a practice that, um, spans so far. Um, I mentioned that there are a number of, um, display cases around the exhibition that document, uh, Derek's life in different ways. Um, and a significant aspect of that is the Howard Sooley photographs of Prospect Cottage. So, a little bit of context for our listeners. Um, Prospect Cottage was a residence that Jarman bought in Dungeness [00:07:30] in Kent in the UK. Um, and it's in a very remote, um, part of the UK on the coastline, in what's considered Britain's only, um, desert. Um, so it's this giant shingle beach and he purchased this, um, little, uh, modest fisherman's cottage, um, which over the following years, um, he proceeded to build, uh, a garden around, um, very inhospitable environments to, to try and [00:08:00] garden in. But nonetheless, um, he managed to find plants that worked with that environment and novel ways of planting, um, to kind of grow. Creators own Eden and there's something really beautiful and poetic about Howard's photographs because when you look at them You can see these these quiet moments of joy Derek in the garden various images of Flowers and ornaments in the garden itself, but also, you know a suitcase with medication in it and injection Derek [00:08:30] looking frailer and frailer as the years go on and so I forget the exact quote, but there was a line from Keith Collins, um, in one of our exhibition texts that say, uh, you know, as the garden grew, Derek's body faded. And so there's a, there's a beautiful poignancy, I think, in these photographs, and the kind of, the intimacy that they, um, offer us. Well, maybe if we should just walk through into one of the other spaces, because, uh, alongside the photographs, you've also got, um, a wonderful, uh, collection of [00:09:00] assemblages. Yes. Um, so, these are the, uh, black paintings that we're about to have a look at. There are a series of about ten, um, works, um, here, uh, that are on canvas, and, um, mixed in with the paint is a, are various objects that were found in, uh, second hand stores or, um, sort of beachcombed from the coastline dungeness, including things like Bullets, [00:09:30] broken glass, thermometers, um, crushed beer cans. Uh, and so these are assemblages, but they're very intentional, um, in the sense that they are often connoting, uh, Particular relationships to ideas about power, um, one of my favorite pieces is a piece titled Work Ethic, where Derek has taken a small tin toy soldier, um, and he's kind of smashed it to pieces, um, and placed it on the [00:10:00] canvas, um, with This, um, seed mixed into the background and we have the smashed piece of glass, um, below the tin soldier that says, work ethic. And the way that this entire composition has kind of been brought together is very evocative of a war memorial, perhaps of a, um, a statue standing on top of a plinth. Um, but the kind of, decrepit nature of the tin soldier and the way that it's been battered offers up such a, [00:10:30] um, visceral kind of sensibility about Jarman the activist, Jarman the anti authoritarian, Jarman the, the, um, the person that was enraged by empire and colonialism and, um, you know, fought tooth and nail against that. Um, there's another beautiful work in this series titled, um, The Battle of Britain, uh, which is a, uh, store bought, uh, model airplane, um, in [00:11:00] the style of a Spitfire, so in the style of a World War II airplane that's been covered in tar, and, um, he's added feather down onto the, uh, onto the tar. So the, the tar is a really interesting material for Derek. Um, he, of course, Prospect Cottage, being a fisherman's cottage, was coated in tar to weatherproof it, and when he took up residence there, he found that there actually, there was actually lots of jars of tar and readily available as a material. And so he started experimenting and pouring molten tar onto found [00:11:30] materials as we see here with the Battle of Britain. Uh, you know, it brings to mind that, um, That saying, uh, being tired and feathered, as a, you know, as a way of talking about, um, the mark of discrimination. And, um, you know, this, we can read this in, uh, as a, as a semi autobiographical work, in a sense, because we think about Jarman's, uh, Derek's relationship with his father Lancelot, who was an RAF pilot in the war. Um, and the complicated relationship [00:12:00] between father and son, um, and the ambivalence that I think Jarman felt as a result of that relationship towards authority, um, alongside, uh, the Battle of Britain, we also have another piece, uh, which is titled Ganymede. And this is also an assemblage painting of sorts. Um, there's a ceramic, uh, oval, um, with a printed image of what looks like a, uh, RAF pilot. We think that this is possibly Jarman's father. And then there is another [00:12:30] assemblage object which looks to me like a, um, wax seal that depicts the, um, ancient Greek myth of Ganymede. And, um, I think together, you know, these works tease out those, that sort of uncomfortable ambiguity about how, um, how Derek felt. One of the other things that strike me about Derek's work is he's incredibly playful. Yes, yeah, he had this wonderful sense [00:13:00] of humour. And particularly some of these images over here where, um, Derek is being, is he ordained as a saint by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence? Yes, that's right. Um, so, um, in 1991, um, Derek Jarman was approached by the, um, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who are an order of gay nuns, um, that have been active in the UK, um, in The Gay Rights Activism [00:13:30] Circles, um, HIV Awareness Activism Circles, and they approached Derek with this offer to, um, canonize him as the first, um, gay saint of Britain. Um, so the ceremony took place at, um, Dungeness at Prosper Cottage, um, using some of the props from Derek's film, Edward II, that had not He had only recently finished shooting, so we can see him wearing the, um, the ro the regal robe from Edward II. Um, Derek said this was [00:14:00] probably one of the happiest days of his life. Um, and we have some beautiful photographs that document the moment, which were taken by Derek's friend, uh, Dennis Doran, as well as a, um, uh, a sheet from the program. Of Events for the Day, which has this wonderful little poem, or perhaps a song that was, that was sung during the canonization. So I'll read out a few lines from that. We're with the sisters down in Dungeness, in Derek's windy garden. We're making him a saint, and hope that he's often blessed with a [00:14:30] thoroughly offensive hard on. Because flooding in his films and life, we see the depths of strength and pride. Sure, casting out shame devoutly. And now we've proceeded, the only thing left is to Oh, I can't do that. And it goes on. You need to get the lyrics in. Yes, yes, yes. I guess one of the things we should, uh Put in context as well, of course, is this is the, you know, mid to late 80s when, um, you know, AIDS was ravaging, [00:15:00] um, you know, a lot of countries around the world and the drug treatments were, were very new at the time, weren't they? So, um, there was a lot of, um, anger and fear and, uh, prejudice. Yeah. And so I think it's, you know, when you talk about humor and joy as being elements of. Derek's practice that come through, I think that's really important to remember that context and that that is a form of, um, activism. To have hope is a form of activism and I think moments like this, moments like, [00:15:30] um, where people can celebrate life is important in the face of that. Um, but yeah, it was a very different time and as you say, there was a lot of fear and a lot of fear of the unknown. Um, This exhibition is running in parallel with another one in the next gallery. Can you tell me a wee bit about that? Yeah, certainly. So, um, for this exhibition, uh, you know, being a [00:16:00] major show by an eminent international artist, it was really important for us to, uh, Show the local context as well. Um, and, earlier today when I was giving my tours, the metaphor that I used, which I would quite like to record here is, um, It's like companion planting, in a way. You know, um, the two expressions uplift each other. And so, uh, we're very, um, grateful to be able to show, uh, an exhibition of works. by Paul Johns called Beautiful [00:16:30] Flowers and How to Grow Them, which is being curated by DJCES, who is a young curator here in Wellington with a, um, an interest in, um, exhibiting. work by queer artists. Um, DJCS Dan has, um, maintained a long term creative relationship with Paul Johns, uh, who began his artistic practice in the, uh, late nine, mid to late 1970s in Christchurch. And the [00:17:00] works that you will see in Beautiful Flowers and How to Grow Them, um, are documents of, um, the community that he found himself amongst and became a part of, um, during that time. So, they're these intimate portraits of, uh, captured on film of, um, members of the queer community, members of the trans community in Christchurch at a time when it really wasn't safe to be out [00:17:30] in the way that, perhaps. It is somewhat safe for now, um, but, um, also crucially, um, I think the ability to see oneself recorded, to see one's image reflected back, um, wasn't as common as it is today with the prevalence of cameras today. Um, and so, um, Paul's, um, beautiful, intimate portraits of his friends dressing up and laughing and kind of doing these very [00:18:00] everyday activities but in each other's presence and, um, with, um, you know, letting the guard down. Um, and I guess this kind of authentic space that Paul was able to, a safe space that he was able to create within his home and on visits to Wellington, to Carmen's, um, balcony. Um, and I think it's powerful to have these works alongside, um, the exhibition by Derek Jarman because, um, In both [00:18:30] shows we see, um, community, really. Yeah. One of the things that struck me seeing that material from New Zealand and the movement in life, And then, just next door, you've got Derek Jarman's amazing Blue, which is a completely blue screen for, I'm not sure how long the film runs for, but an amazing soundtrack, but it's so, it's so focused, isn't it? Yeah, it's [00:19:00] incredible. So, Blue is Derek Jarman's first film. final feature length film, um, and probably his best known work. Um, and it is a really interesting contrast, as you, as you pointed out. Uh, when one is sitting in the Paul Johns Exhibition, you can hear the soundtrack of Blue kind of coming through the wall. And, and here, with the Paul Johns Exhibition, you have these, uh, silent images of people. And with Blue, it's all sound. It's all, all, you know, it's all visual [00:19:30] in the sense that it's this immovable, you know, uh, sort of totalizing, um, span of color, um, for I think like 72 minutes. And so then the audio narrative is, is really what takes us on, um, the journey through Blue. Um, but it's a really incredible work to include in this exhibition. to be able to show in this exhibition. Um, Blue was made at a time when Derek's uh, eyesight was [00:20:00] failing him and so his vision um, gradually became entirely occluded by a blue haze. Um, so the work is kind of made in response to that to, to, to losing one's sense of sight. Of course you can think about The implication for a visual artist, for a filmmaker, for somebody whose entire, um, creative career and life has been about the image, to now lose the image. And yet, um, I think that there's something really beautiful about, um, the way that [00:20:30] blue kind of, um, It almost negates the need for image. It's, it's so, it's a hard work to talk about because it's, um, very transcendent and personal, um, and, uh, hard to pin down as one thing, you know. When you listen to the audio for Blue, um, it takes you on a number of kind of circuitous narratives, um, around his [00:21:00] hospitalization, um, around his relationship to his friends and to, to losing, um, people that he held dear. Two banal things like, uh, almost being knocked over by a bicycle. And um, you know, the, um, the, What the nurse was wearing that day. It's, it's kind of quite diaristic in that way and much of the, um, The actual dialogue from Blue was taken from Derek's diaries. So, in the way that some of his, uh, [00:21:30] Films were collage inspired and the way that, for instance, the black paintings, the collage works that we've been having a look at, Are, um, assemblages. Blue was also an assemblage in a sense. And, um, in fact, When it was initially, uh, shown, it existed in a number of, um, across a number of media. So, uh, Blue was shown publicly on, uh, British television. Um, it was also played as a radio, um, broadcast. And, um, people could write a letter, [00:22:00] um, and they would receive a postcard back with, uh, a blue postcard. And the idea was that you could hold it in front of you, um, to Create that, the sensation of, of being with the work. Um, as I said, you know, elements of the text come from Derek's diaries and it's, it's this kind, there's something quite amorphous and hard to pin down about, about the piece because of that. It's, it's such a different experience. seeing blue and [00:22:30] hearing it. I think the first time I encountered blue was, uh, listening to the soundtrack. And, uh, but it takes it to a completely new level when you actually are in a theater looking at a blue screen for 70 minutes and it's so intense. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's, um, one of the reasons that having this exhibition here has been important because, um, we, I think galleries create opportunities for us to experience work in [00:23:00] the ways that the, you know, it's, it's been set up in the way that the artist intended and, um, we've worked very closely with the Jarman Estate to ensure that that meets their specifications. So, um, but I think it pays off, right? You can, you, you feel Uh, something, it does something to you here, and it's different from the cinema as well, like I've seen Blue played in the cinema. I've never, you know, experiencing it in a gallery and in close proximity to the other works in the [00:23:30] exhibition, which is maybe what you were alluding to with the proximity to Paul's show is that's what makes this opportunity to, to, to experience these works. Uh, so unique. So after. These works are shown here. This is the final day for, for, for Jarman at the DAS. Where do the works go? Well, we're very lucky that the Gallery of New South Wales have, um, Art Gallery of New South Wales have, um, picked this exhibition up as a touring exhibition. So, um, it will be travelling to Australia. Um, and [00:24:00] they've also got a blockbuster public program from the sound of it. They're going to be doing a symposium on Blue, um, as well as a full retrospective of all, uh, feature films. Um. So, very, um, great good for the Australians. And speaking of public programming, I mean, you and the team have been doing some great work with public programming around this exhibition. Can you just tell me about some of the things that you've done? Yeah, thank you. That's, um, [00:24:30] For me, programs are really integral and important part of an exhibition because, um, they kind of extend the conversation beyond, um, Um, Beyond the walls of the show. And, uh, for this exhibition it was really important for us to kind of capture the breadth and diversity of Derek's practice. So, uh, we did a short, small film festival where we showed, um, a small selection of the films. Sebastian, The Garden, Caravaggio, um, as well as Edward [00:25:00] II and The Devils, which was a film by Ken Russell where Jarman worked as a set designer. So we wanted to show a diversity of those films, as well as kind of really create opportunities for conversation about the significance of what it meant to have these works here. Um, one of the, uh, panel discussions that, um, grew out of that was a program called Future Prospects, um, a panel on personal utopias where our, uh, Panelists kind of [00:25:30] variously spoke about their, um, relationships to the idea of Crosby Cottage as a site of pilgrimage and as a, um, you're building personal utopias in adverse circumstances. Um, we also wanted a performance element to accompany this exhibition. Jarman's, um, life was filled with His, um, collaborators and accomplices and dancing and laughter and music and so, you know, it felt important to bring a liveness to the show. Um, [00:26:00] and we were very lucky to work on two performance based, uh, programs for the exhibition. And the first of those was a commissioned artwork, uh, response by Tobias Allen, uh, in collaboration with Footnote New Zealand Dance. Um, Tobias is a young artist, uh, now based in Glasgow, but originally from Wellington, um, whose work is deeply engaged with, uh, notions of historic loss, um, queerness, um, mourning, and remembrance, and, um, Tobias created this. [00:26:30] beautiful, um, movement based response alongside the dancers from Footnote, um, which remembers not only, uh, Derek Jarman, but also the work of Douglas Wright. And so that was one program that we ran, and, um, we also ran a community focused, um, performance program here, um, which is called The Bluest Ball, um, which was, um, Developed by City Gallery and the Dowse in collaboration with Orva Collective, who are a really exciting, [00:27:00] uh, group of, um, performers, artists, uh, creatives working in Wellington in the, uh, ballroom and drag scene. And, um, So the ball, um, paid honor to Jarman, paid honor to the activism that he represented through the categories and, um, the, the ways that people showed up to, to, to support. And there's some fantastic images online, which I'm happy to share with you, um, that kind of document that night. And I think, you know, in terms of we, if we talk about [00:27:30] audience reaction to the show, for me, that moment was really the, kind of the, The moment we were like, okay, we knocked it out the park. People have really, people, young people, 18 year old queer people who may not have heard of Derek Jarman are getting fired up and coming dressed in drag, holding activism signs. And, you know, this is what he would have wanted, I think. So, we're very proud of, um, the programs that we were able to, the ways that the programs are able to kind of enliven and, uh, you [00:28:00] know, extend that conversation. And just being in the gallery space today on the final day and seeing the amount of people coming through. The diversity of people coming through is, I mean, one, I think it speaks to Derek Jarman's amazing work, but also, um, the, the exhibition and, and what you've been able to do with, with Jarman's work. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. I mean, the audience reaction has been Phenomenal and, um, I've been given guided tours this morning, um, to various groups of people which were very, have [00:28:30] been very well attended, so I'm glad that people are getting in to see the show and it's, you know, it's good that we have a resource like this in, um, in Lower Hutt and in Wellington. It's just really good that the Dowse is appreciated by its community. Now, as part of today's, um, event. Were you, um, making seed packages? Yeah, that was a, uh, drop in workshop that, um, we ran alongside the tours. Um There's this documentary, uh, [00:29:00] called Derrick by Isaac Julians, and it's narrated by Tilda Swinton. And throughout the documentary, um, she addresses her statements to Derrick as if they were letters. And she says, Dear Derrick, Dear Derrick, Dear Derrick. And he was such a lover of words as well. And so we wanted to, uh, create a simple activity, um, that people could remember the show by. So we encouraged people to write a letter to a loved one and, um, illustrate the envelope. And then take a little seed packet with some delphinium [00:29:30] seeds in it and post them to your friend and plant them responsibly. Um, but, uh, yes, just to kind of connect, you know, Jarman's love of words, um, his love of gardening and to create a kind of a reflective, contemplative space, um, for people to engage with the show in a different way.
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