Continuing our Desert Island Pics talks series with audio from 2014, Jeremy Deller discussed the eight photographs he’d take with him to a desert island. Loosely following the format of Radio 4′s Desert Island Discs, our regular host, Stephen Bull discussed Jeremy’s selections with him and discover how they reflect his life and career.
The work of Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller incorporates a wide range of forms including installations, videos, performances and music, and often involves collaborations with the public.
Deller is noted for strong, politically engaged works such as the bouncy castle replica of Stonehenge, Sacrilege, at the Olympic Park for London 2012 and The Battle of Orgreave, a re-enactment of a conflict that took place during the miner’s strike of 1984. David Allan Mellor interviewed Jeremy about this work for Photoworks Issue 17 and Photoworks Members can read this interview.
Joy In People, a major survey exhibition of his work across two decades, appeared at the Hayward Gallery in 2012. Deller also initiated Acid Brass, a brass band playing classic acid house tracks, who performed at the opening of Tate Modern in 2000 and at Tate Britain. He was selected to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2013 with his show English Magic, which is now on tour.
Desert Island Pics is an ongoing series of Photoworks talks, loosely based on the format of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Previous castaways including Martin Parr, Simon Baker and Simon Roberts.
Image 1: Ken Russell, Window Girl, Picture Post, 4th June, 1955
Image 2: Homer Skyes,Garland Day, Castleton Derby Day, From ‘Once A Day’,1977
Image 3: Sharlene E Santano, from National Geographic
Image 4: August Sander, Infirm Old Man, 1931-32
Image 5: Paul Hackett, 30th June, Steven Laurence Murder Suspects leave the MacPherson Inquiry, London, 1988
Image 6: Dick Barnett, Jimmy Page
Image 7: Bettina Rheims, From the series ‘Chambre Close’, 6th November, Paris
Image 8: Dennis Hudgeson, Adrian Street and his father, 1973
Find out more about Jeremy Deller and his work at jeremydeller.org
