Blue View

Almost Bliss private view

CHELSEA space’s tinted windows succinctly announced the launch of our new show Almost Bliss: Notes on Derek Jarman’s Blue

private view crowd

The show revolves around Derek Jarman’s notes for his seminal late work Blue and is part of Jarman2014 a year long cycle of events, exhibitions, and screenings to celebrate the life and work of Derek Jarman and to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his premature death from AIDS related illnesses. The whole season opened on January 22nd with the excellent exhibition Pandemonium curated by Mark Turner at Kings College. With our installation opening one week later it was hard to know whether we would draw a crowd but CHELSEA space very quickly filled up with old and new friends.

Stathis Lagoudakis, Janet Hodgson, David Gothard and Keith Collins

artist Mark Wallinger and CHELSEA space Director Donald Smith with Derek Jarman's Blue print

We were very pleased to see artist Mark Wallinger whose installation incorporating Derek Jarman’s painting studio for the 1994 exhibition Every Now and Then had been an important lodestone for the CHELSEA space show.

Peter Fillingham, James Mackay, and Stephen Farthing

Another important curatorial reference point was Peter Fillingham’s and Keith Collins’ installation for the 1999 exhibition Stimuli at the With de Witte in Rotterdam. Peter, a close friend of Derek Jarman who collaborated on many projects, is seen here at the private view with the producer of Blue, James Mackay, and the artist Stephen Farthing who is co-editor of the new Thames and Hudson publication Derek Jarman’s Sketchbooks

Roger Cook, Ed Webb-Ingall, and James Mackay

The other co-editor on the Sketchbooks book, Ed Webb-Ingall, was also at the private view and is seen here with film producer James Mackay and with artist, art historian, and sometime fashion model Roger Cook who played Christ in Derek Jarman’s film, The Garden. Blue (or Bliss as it was originally titled) was conceived as the 3rd part of a trilogy along with The Last of England and The Garden, Jarman’s powerful personal reflections on the state of the country in the late 1980s.

Blue ramp at CHELSEA space

The prodigal returns - Donald Smith greets Eddie Farrell

designer Mady Neighbour

We were surprised and pleased to see one of our longtime collaborators, the artist Eddie Farrell who has recently returned from living in Berlin. Eddie worked with us on our our very first show Gary Woodley:Impingement No.47 as part of the performance Food Eating. He then played a major role as audio/visual artist-archivist for our Bruce McLean show Process Progress Project Archive in 2006 and in the same year created a day of performances and events entitled Acting Eating Reading Drinking Meeting as part of our exhibition Rehearsing: Samuel Beckett. We were also delighted to see designer Mady Neighbour who worked with Derek Jarman on the theatre designs for Beckett’s Waiting For Godot starring Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson at the Queens Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue in 1991.

Lisson Gallery's Nicholas Logsdail

artist Sinead Bligh with gallerist Laure Genillard

Lynton Talbot and Hana Noorali

In 1967 Derek Jarman was invited by Nicholas Logsdail to be in the inaugural exhibition at the Lisson Gallery and it was a great pleasure to see Nicholas at our private view. He arrived with Laure Genillard, who curated Aftermath: Objects From Projects at CHELSEA space in 2011, and Lynton Talbot and Hana Noorali who, with Elena Crippa, curated our 5th anniversary exhibitions and events Should I Stay or Should I Go in 2010.

Collector and artists' books dealer William Allen with Peter Fillingham and Karl Lydon behind.

Daryl Biggs and Nicky Carvell

Leslie Foxcroft and Alan Charlton

As always it was great to see the polychrome vision of Daryl Biggs and Nicky Carvell, Nicky showed with us in Red White and Blue; Pop Punk Politics Place which also included Derek Jarman’s Super-8 film Jordan’s Dance, famous for its inclusion in his dystopian feature film Jubilee. As Derek Jarman’s Blue is, in part, a tribute to Yves Klein it was also a great pleasure to see Britain’s own master of the monochrome, artist Alan Charlton, whose new show opens at Annely Juda Fine Art on 13th February

vitrine viewing

Thanks to everyone who attended the private view and made the event a success.