The Turner Prize-winning artist premieres a steel band version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
In a Desert Island Discs episode first airing on 6 January, artist Jeremy Deller discusses meeting Andy Warhol and notable works We’re Here Because We’re Here and Acid Brass, before selecting a brand new work, recorded for the show, as one of his eight selections. For his eight tracks, played throughout the show, Deller selected songs by the likes of Roxy Music, KLF and Willie Nelson, alongside a world premiere of a version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, performed by south London’s Melodians Steel Orchestra.
After discussing his formative years in south London, the on-air conversation with Lauren Laverne turns to Deller’s 2016 work We’re Here Because We’re Here. The large-scale performance piece saw over 14,000 young men dressed in World War One uniforms arrive at various public locations around the UK on 1 July 2016. Intended as a memorial to the lives lost in the Battle of the Somme on the event’s centenary, the artist describes grappling with the challenge of commemorating disaster.
The discussion then turns to a momentous occasion in Deller’s life: meeting Andy Warhol in London during the 1980s. After their first encounter, Deller flew to New York and spent two weeks visiting Warhol’s studio, more commonly known as The Factory. He likens the iconic pop artist to “the internet” because of his appetite for information, and states that Warhol taught him that “as an artist you can make your own world.”
He then discusses Acid Brass, a work that he describes as his “coming out as an artist”. The idea for the 1996 work came from witnessing the growth of acid house across the UK. He recalls seeing parallels between the youth movement and the miners’ strikes of the 1980s. These similarities led him to approach a brass band – representative of industrial culture – to play renditions of acid house music.
Acid Brass and Hallelujah are not the only examples of Deller collaborating with musicians. In December he also teamed up with former Crack cover stars IDLES to produce a limited edition print in response to the the band’s single, Samaritans. The track is also listed as Crack Magazine’s top track of 2018. All proceeds from the prints’ sale will go to mental health charity Samaritans.
Listen to Jeremy Deller on Desert Island Discs via BBC Sounds. Jeremy Deller’s Samaritans print is available to buy via the Crack Magazine shop.
