Advertisement
Art

Jarvis Cocker interviews Jeremy Deller: “Art and culture show us at our best”

Two cultural pioneers meet in this week’s magazine as artist Jeremy Deller is in conversation with our guest editor Jarvis Cocker 

In The Big Issue this week, we hear from Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller about a new artwork, and who better to quiz him on the significance of the work than Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker?

A cheeky yellow smiley face rises behind Stonehenge in a colourful image that now flanks two sides of Bold Tendencies, an art and music venue in Peckham. “A New Dawn” is an artwork by Jeremy Deller and Fraser Muggeridge that, for Deller, has particular significance in an era of struggling arts institutions trying to beat the odds by reopening after the lockdown.

The site for this artwork has been carefully selected. The not-for-profit arts organisation Bold Tendencies epitomises how, for Deller, “culture is the whole point of a city like London”.

The artwork itself speaks to this unique moment in time for our nation’s art and cultural institutions and what they currently face. It brings together one of Deller’s recurring symbols — the smiley face — and, despite the odds, presents an image of optimism, although Deller tells Jarvis that he’s not a natural optimist. He does, however, have faith in the smiley and in art and culture to “show us at our best”.

It’s a courageous decision to resume activities at these kinds of places in the wake of the pandemic, says Deller, but it is also so important: “the reopening of Bold Tendencies is inspirational”.

To read the full interview, pick up a copy of this week’s Big Issue from your local vendor. If you can’t reach a vendor you can also subscribe to the magazine to receive it every week either to your door or digitally.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Become a Big Issue member

3.8 million people in the UK live in extreme poverty. Turn your anger into action - become a Big Issue member and give us the power to take poverty to zero.

Recommended for you

Read All
Fin DAC: 'As a creator of public murals, I aspire to leave spaces brighter than I found them'
Fin DAC
Fin DAC

Fin DAC: 'As a creator of public murals, I aspire to leave spaces brighter than I found them'

'It's art for people': This one-man kayak project shows the beauty of slowing down
Lying down flat in a kayak offers a rarely seen view of the UK’s waterways
Art

'It's art for people': This one-man kayak project shows the beauty of slowing down

'I cried my eyes out making this': Meet the artists in homeless exhibition backed by Prince William
david tovey
Art

'I cried my eyes out making this': Meet the artists in homeless exhibition backed by Prince William

Superstar Arts: This charity gives people with learning disabilities the chance to create
Art

Superstar Arts: This charity gives people with learning disabilities the chance to create

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue