| For Derek Jarman no topic was taboo. His enraged reaction against repression fuelled the impetus behind much of his work. Fiercely non-conformist, Jarman refused to please anyone but himself. "I am the most fortunate film director of my generation. I've only ever done what I've wanted." |
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Having studied painting, Jarman fell into film by accident when Ken Russell approached him to design sets. His first feature, Sebastiane, a celebration of homosexuality, attracted a cult following and Jarman acquired underground kudos. But it was the 1978 punk flick Jubilee that cemented his reputation as a pillar of the anti-establishment.
Returning to painting in the early 80s, Jarman's work was exhibited widely and enthusiastically. Around this time, Jarman produced pop videos and published the first of four autobiographies, Dancing Ledge. Following the release of Caravaggio in 1986 Jarman picked up a Turner Prize nomination for "Outstanding Visual Quality in the field of film". In December of the same year Jarman was diagnosed HIV positive. Revealing his HIV status a month later he became one of only a few public figures prepared to talk openly about the disease. "I don't have to adopt a cause, I became one." An eloquent activist, Jarman regularly attended Outrage! demonstrations with Peter Tatchell, dismissing the lobby group Stonewall as self-congratulatory, self-elected assimilationists. As Jarman's condition progressed his work became more entwined with his own life and impending death. "I'm not afraid of death but I am afraid of dying. Pain can be alleviated by morphine but the pain of social ostracism cannot be taken away." By 1992, Jarman was seriously ill and began losing his sight. A year later he released Blue, a deeply personal film reflecting Jarman's state of mind as he underwent medical treatment - the blank blue screen symbolising the invisibility of the virus. Jarman died on February 19 1994. Although an acclaimed writer, painter, filmmaker and gardener, Derek Jarman will be best remembered for remaining his own man, daring and defiant, an anarchic artist whose work stood alone while touching millions. |
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