HOARE, Philip (ed.)
Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature

Friday 3 February 1989. I was describing the garden to Maggi Hambling at a gallery opening. And said I intended to write a book about it. She said: “Oh, you’ve finally discovered nature, Derek.” “I don’t think it’s quite like that,” I said, thinking of Constable and Samuel Palmer’s Kent. “Ah, I understand completely. You’ve discovered Modern Nature.”
—Derek Jarman

This elegant, pocket-sized book was published in 2022 on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at John Hansard Gallery, Soupthampton, in 2022. Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature  focuses on the artist’s lifelong passion for plants, the human body, the landscape and the greater environment, as evidenced in the living artwork that is Prospect Cottage and its shingle garden in Dungeness, Kent.

Edited by the exhibition’s curator Philip Hoare, the book features new writing by Alexandra Symons Sutcliffe, Tilda Swinton, Olivia Laing, Neil Tennant and Ali Smith, alongside archival photography by Howard Sooley and Liam Daniel, and selected stills from Derek Jarman’s films.

Published by John Hansard Gallery, 2022
Design by Daly & Lyon
Artists' Writings / Film & Video / Queer Culture