Jeremy Deller

Jeremy Deller is a conceptual artist who works across many mediums including sound, film, performance, print and sculpture. Described by critic Mark Brown as a “pied piper of popular culture”, his projects often draw on pivotal moments of social history or shed light on particular subcultures, such as the 90s rave scene, brass bands or folk art. Often working collaboratively with other filmmakers, musicians or artists, the works have a political investigative tone to them. With his collaborators, Deller unpacks the cultural imprint specific eras or historic events leave behind, using this immaterial social matter as the accumulative force for each body of work. His 2001 performance The Battle of Orgreave brought together nearly 1000 performers who re-enacted the bloody clash between miners and police in 1984, unearthing tensions within Britain’s immediate social history. Deller met Andy Warhol as a student in New York in the 80s and spent two weeks at The Factory. He cites Warhol as an inspiration to him, mirroring Warhol’s hunger for popular culture and the political undertones that run throughout it. Deller won the Turner prize in 2004 and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2013.