English Magic by Jeremy Deller a Learning Resource for Teachers and Group Leaders to Accompany the 2014 Touring Exhibition
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English Magic by Jeremy Deller A learning resource for teachers and group leaders to accompany the 2014 touring exhibition The William Morris Gallery, London 18 January – 30 March 2014 Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol 12 April – 21 September 2014 Turner Contemporary, Margate 11 October 2014 – 11 January 2015 A Good Day for Cyclists, painted by Sarah Tynan English Magic was commissioned by the British Council and the UK tour is supported by the Art Fund. This learning resource was written by Liz Ellis, artist and educationalist, in consultation with staff from William Morris Gallery, Waltham Forest, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and Turner Contemporary, Margate and the British Council. January 2014 1 The venues William Morris Gallery, London Housed in a fine Georgian building, which was once the home of William Morris, the Gallery explores the life and work of Morris as designer, author, businessman and political activist. It was extensively refurbished in 2012 and was the winner of the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2013. Open Wed – Sun 10 am – 5 pm Tues for schools/groups by appointment Admission free William Morris Gallery Lloyd Park, Forest Road, Walthamstow, London E17 4PP wmgallery.org.uk Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol Housing over 20 galleries with world-class collections of art, archaeology, geology and natural history, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery has been a cultural landmark of the city since 1905. Open Mon – Fri 10 am – 5 pm Weekends & bank holiday Mondays 10 am – 6 pm Admission free Bristol Museum & Art Gallery Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RL bristol.gov.uk/museums Turner Contemporary, Margate Turner Contemporary is a dynamic visual arts organisation that believes in making art open, relevant and fulfilling for all. Inspired by J.M.W. Turner’s sense of enquiry, it offers a space for everyone to embrace their curiosity and to discover different ways of seeing, thinking and learning. Open Tues – Sun and bank holidays 10 am – 6 pm Admission free Turner Contemporary Rendezvous, Margate, Kent CT9 1HG turnercontemporary.org 2 Contents 1 How to use this learning resource P 4 2 Introduction to the English Magic exhibition P 5 A Jeremy Deller B The Biennale C What is English Magic? D The role of artist as collaborator 3 Four key themes: P 8 A Identity and Englishness B Fairness and Social Justice C Accountability and Protest D Popular Culture 4 Four key works and linked gallery activities P 11 A Key work 1: The filmEnglish Magic B Key work 2: The mural We sit starving amidst our gold C Key work 3: The mural St. Helier on fire 2017 plus banners based on diagrams of tax avoidance D Key work 4: William Morris artefacts 5 Suggestions for activities after your visit with a range of key stages and community audiences P 20 6 Further information P 23 A More about Jeremy Deller’s life and work B Jeremy Deller and national identity C Jeremy Deller and politics: The Battle of Orgreave 7 Booklist P 26 8 Endnotes P 27 1 How to use this learning resource This pack has been written for teachers, youth workers and all colleagues involved in broad contexts of learning, including community leaders, adult education tutors and artists. The contextual information will be useful to staff at all levels for general preparation. The teaching strategies and suggested activities are geared towards secondary and 16 students. An additional section aimed at the primary age range will be added in due course. Please use this pack to support your own learning, in preparing either for an independent gallery visit with your group or a taught workshop, and also to support you in planning your responses and follow up learning activities after visiting the exhibition. For example, in using this pack, if you are an art teacher, we suggest you discuss this pack and exhibition with colleagues teaching English, Politics, History or Geography. Consider developing shared gallery visits and lesson plans, thus enabling richer engagement with the broad exhibition themes of identity and Englishness, popular culture and political history. If you are a youth worker, community leader or adult education tutor working in informal learning contexts, we suggest you discuss this exhibition and share skills with colleagues who may be building local, democratic networks linked with housing, health or sport, through voluntary groups, charities, co-ops etc. 4 2 Introduction to the English Magic exhibition English Magic is contemporary, witty and often unexpected. The complex works in the exhibition offer significant, exciting opportunities for audiences of all ages to share opinions, express disagreement, build critical thinking capacities and gain skills in exercising freedom of speech and cultural rights. We hope you will find opportunities to do so with your group. A Jeremy Deller The artist was born in London in 1966, trained as an art historian and has won international recognition. His artwork spans a variety of media, from installations, processions and posters to documentary films, exploring broad themes such as identity, popular culture and social justice. He won the Turner Prize in 2004 and is now probably most well-known for creating the giant inflatable Stonehenge work, Sacrilege, as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad celebrations. 5 B The Biennale The British Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2013 The Biennale is an international art festival which runs every other year in Venice, Italy. Over 475,000 visitors attend the Biennale each year, to view exciting contemporary art from all over the world. In 2013 Deller was commissioned by the British Council to represent Britain at the 55th International Art Exhibition (La Biennale di Venezia). This exhibition was displayed in Venice from June-November 2013, and in 2014 is touring to three UK venues: the William Morris Gallery, London, the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and Turner Contemporary, Margate. Most of the work exhibited at the Venice Biennale is displayed in each of the venues, with some changes due to venue size and subject matter. C What is English Magic? Sacrilege, commissioned as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad celebrations and featured in the filmEnglish Magic 6 English Magic reflects the roots of much of Deller’s work, focusing on British society. It includes people, icons, myths, folklore and cultural and political history and addresses events from the past, present and an imagined future. Deller works with a varied range of collaborators including archaeologists, musicians, bird handlers, prisoners and painters. Deller has talked about the title English Magic as referring to different types of magic, ‘good’ and ‘bad’.1 He has said that the ‘bad’ magic contains elements of ‘concealment and trickery’. Deller employs funny and playful ideas drawn from his imagination, including an inflatable Stonehenge and a steel band playing the music of David Bowie, Ralph Vaughan Williams and A Guy Called Gerald. At the same time, he introduces us to ideas of ‘bad magic’ with explicit imagery of ‘vengeance and destruction’, including a mural of William Morris wreaking revenge on a Russian oligarch’s super yacht and banners depicting contemporary methods of tax avoidance by an international supermarket. In the five minute introductory video,2 Deller describes the English Magic film as the ‘glue’ between the different rooms of the exhibition, with the steel band music of the film’s soundtrack influencing our experience as we walk through the exhibition displays. D The role of artist as collaborator Working collaboratively has always been central to Deller’s work. In English Magic, the role of music is one example of the layering of ideas which informs his practice. Steel band musicians transpose a range of musical styles and contemporary artists paint murals in each of the exhibition venues. Other collaborators in the exhibition include a banner maker, historians from the Museum of London, film makers, musicians and prisoners who are also ex-soldiers. He also uses artefacts ranging in age from ancient Palaeolithic times to 19th century examples of craft and design by William Morris. The painter Stuart Sam Hughes, commissioned by Deller to paint two of the wall murals in each of the exhibition venues, has spoken of how Deller initially approached him in 2003 to paint a tea urn, having seen Hughes’ customised motorbikes.3 Since then, Hughes and Deller have collaborated on many exhibitions, including English Magic where the starting instruction can be as brief as ‘paint me a street’. The finished murals are created out of a process that involves conversation, sketches and photos as well as much negotiation and discussion. 7 3 Four key themes A Identity and Englishness Throughout his career Deller has constantly questioned what being English means, asking us to consider how our ideas about British identity have changed over time. While you explore English Magic, be aware of how Deller is not asking us to agree with each other or reach consensus. Rather he is more interested in how and in what ways we agree and disagree with each other, whilst noticing and being aware of these differences. English Magic explores a non-utopian4 vision of Britain. For example, the hand painted mural St Helier on fire 2017by Stuart Sam Hughes, shows an imagined view of St Helier in Jersey (a place famous for enabling companies and rich people to avoid British tax laws) set alight by protestors enraged by inequality. Within the English Magic film, a Range Rover, an English car (with strong associations of upper class wealth), is shown in the process of being destroyed and crushed in a scrap yard. Deller reminds us throughout this exhibition that notions of ‘identity’ and ‘Englishness’ are immensely complex, with each of us contributing our own differing beliefs and ideas.