Derek Jarman: Modern Nature review – a starry and tempestuous tribute
Barbican, LondonJessie Buckley, Olly Alexander and Will Young read from the artist and film-maker’s diaries, capturing a life of defiance, joy and vitalityIs Derek Jarman the first director to be more famous for his foliage than his films? At Prospect Cottage, his black-and-yellow sanctuary squatting in the shadow of the nuclear power station at Dungeness on the Kent coast, Jarman nurtured a garden in the inauspicious shingle; plants thrived between the jagged upturned stones he likened to dragon’s teeth. Thanks to his writings – notably the diaries published as Modern Nature in 1991, three years before his death – and the 2020 crowdfunding campaign to preserve the dwelling for the nation, the cottage and its gardens are now familiar and accessible to people who have never seen Sebastiane or Edward II, and may never want to.Film is the flickering backdrop to the Barbican’s evening of music and readings celebrating Modern Nature, rather than its focal point, though Super 8 footage of a youthful Tilda Swinton (Jarman’s muse) provides a neat counterpoint to the pre-recorded sound of her 21st-century voice. Here in person are performers including the musician Simon Fisher Turner – a Jarman collaborator – along with Jessie Buckley, Shaun Evans and Will Young as well as It’s a Sin co-stars Olly Alexander and Omari Douglas. Continue reading...
