Delphinium Days
A Derek Jarman retrospective at the Art Gallery of NSW, February to April 2025
It was a commitment
Wednesday nights/Sunday afternoons
A mosaic in the prosaic
Proof that we live for art
We do, don’t we?
I had to prove it, even though
It was a commitment
Wednesday nights/Sunday afternoons
To sit through spools of hand-spun yarns
A re-use troupe of friends and lovers
In studios and warehouses by the stink
Movies like nightclub remixes, a middle finger to Merchant Ivory
It was a commitment
Wednesday nights/Sunday afternoons
To tread the portico to the other
Dreamworlds fabricated from one man’s junk
Mirrors, candles, costume jewellery like dead weights
Vogue-heavy makeup varnishing youthful bodies conserved in Thatcher’s Britain
[Says earnestly]
I live for art
I do, don’t I?
I had to prove it, even though
It was a commitment
Wednesday nights/Sunday afternoons
To confront the urgency in Blue
Mortality grasping life, desperately, like water
For art, for delphinium days
We live for delphinium days, don’t we?
It was a commitment
Wednesday nights/Sunday afternoons
- Margaret River ©
A Derek Jarman retrospective is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure.
How many films did you watch?
I love some of his films. I remember the double-bill Wittgenstein / Blue at a small Tokyo theater. Wittgenstein was brilliant. Blue was mesmerizing... to the point of nearly falling asleep, I'm ashamed to admit.
I watched all of them - around 20. I found Blue confronting because by that stage, he was really sick and clutching at life. That came through quite strongly, I thought. How could you doze off during something like that, Gianni?!