My Creative Hero: Derek Jarman
Nate Woodhead is a seasoned creative leader with a culture-first approach to advertising. He's worked at some of the biggest and smallest agencies around and spends his time working out the best way to get clients and their work talked about for the right reasons.
As MD, his focus is to find intersections in culture that help brands to put the power of earned media at the heart of 360 campaigns and drive impact on the bottom line.
LBB> Who would you say is your creative hero?
Nate> Derek Jarman has been a constant presence in my life, louder sometimes than others and for very different reasons, but since I found him, he’s always been there. He was a gay activist, gardener, filmmaker, costume designer, poet and an experimental visionary. Much of his work focused on the expression and representation of queer sexuality at a time when heteronormativity took up almost all of the space in the arts.
LBB> How long has this person been important to you and what are your first memories of meeting them or coming across their work?
Nate> He first came to my awareness in my early teens and was a catalyst in my creative and gay awakening. He was a contradiction in many ways - a punk at heart with an unusual and deep appreciation of classic art and literature which played a huge part in his work and informed my desire to connect craft and disruptive thinking.
Anyone who knows his work would assume that his catalogue of queer films would have been the first thing to catch my eye as a curious teen but it was actually an article about the final eight years of his life at Prospect Cottage.
Jarman was 52 years old when he died from AIDS related complications. I don’t remember the entire article but I’ll never forget the striking images of Prospect Cottage black and yellow in the bleak nothingness of Dungeness and the sculpture garden surrounding the cottage - Jarman's last work of art.
There, with very little to work with, he reshaped the pebbly nothingness into something of beauty with rusted parts, driftwood, rocks and stones. He created space for hardy plant life to bloom in the most inhospitable coastal conditions. A fitting and fenceless reflection of Jarman's refusal to live within the boundaries or be subdued by conditions that tried to oppress him.
LBB> If it’s someone you personally know, how did you get to know them and how has your relationship evolved over the years? If you don’t know this person, how did you go about finding to learn more about them and their work?
Nate> Prospect Cottage was the invite but over the coming years I became obsessed with Jarman, his activism through art, his refusal to be quiet. I recently read an articulation of his work as “A manifesto for open homosexuality” and as I look back I understand this with a fullness that is hard to explain.
When Jarman and I became acquainted a few years after his death, the themes in his work were as powerful as ever. He was prolific in his art, from Sebastian in 1976, one of the first British films with a positive portrayal of homosexuality, to incredible music videos for people like The Sex Pistols, Brian Ferry and Marianne Faithful. His ‘Black Paintings’ thinly veiled golden phallus and the words of his poems all have their place in my own creative landscape.
Jarman's final feature, Blue, was created in 1993 and it’s a masterpiece. At the time of its creation AIDS related complications had damaged Jarman's sight to such a degree that he could only see in shades of blue. The film features one 75 minute shot of International Klein Blue overlaid with Jarman's voice, and that of long time collaborators such as Tilda Swinton narrating his life and vision and it’s as inspiring as it is devastating.
LBB> Why is the person such an inspiration to you?
Nate> Throughout his entire life he used creativity to drive progress, his work extended to many parts of culture, from the avant garde to pop music - and through it all he challenged convention and made space for new narratives all while being a prominent activist with groups like OutRage!
As I’ve written this it’s become clear that there is much more I’d like to say than I can possibly fit into this article. Perhaps I should write a book…
LBB> How does this person influence you in your approach to your creative work?
Nate> I’ve visited Prospect Cottage numerous times, for me it's like visiting Jarman himself and although long since gone he’s somehow still there. Whenever I’m stuck for an idea or need to recentre I take my mind there and it always gives me something.
LBB> What piece or pieces of this person’s work do you keep coming back to and why?
Nate> There is so much of his work to appreciate, I particularly like The Garden which stars Tilda Swinton. Swinton was something of a muse for Jarman (coincidentally my 13 year old dog is named Tilda - after Swinton but because of Jarman).
In truth, my real inspiration is the life he lived, the things he stood for and the voice he gave to queer people throughout his life.
