With the support of the LUMA Foundation Jarman’s producer and collaborator James Mackay has archived and restored the artist’s Super 8 films. Mackay’s painstaking work has resulted in a large body of work that has been preserved and can now be enjoyed by future generations. Manchester Art Gallery had planned to show three films from this archive, including In the Shadow of the Sun (1981), Andrew Logan’s Miss World (1973) and Jordan’s Dance (1977). We’re delighted that LUMA Foundation and James have agreed to on-line access of Jordan’s Dance for a limited period so that our audiences can enjoy a small piece of what they would have experienced in the exhibition.
THE IMAGE IS UNFORGETTABLE – A HAUNTING MIXTURE OF POWER AND PATHOS… AND TO ACHIEVE IT USING NOT THE RESOURCES OF A MAJOR STUDIO BUT WITH JUST A VACANT LOT, A FEW CHEAPLY ROBED AND UNROBED FRIENDS, SOME BURNING GARBAGE AND THE LOWEST-BUDGET, MOST HAND-HELD OF TECHNOLOGIES. PLUS, OF COURSE, THE INSTINCT THAT LEAD HIM TO A REMARKABLE PERFORMER, AND THE GENEROSITY AND INTELLIGENCE THAT THEN LET HIM LICENSE AND FREE HER TO PERFORM.
Jordan’s Dance The Transmutation of Elements by Neil Bartlett from ‘Derek Jarman Super 8’ James Mackay (Thames & Hudson)
Jarman often showed his films silent, as we planned to do in the exhibition and have also done here, but sometimes he used different musical pieces to accompany his films. For Jordan’s Dance one of Jarman’s suggestions was Brahms’ Violin Concerto, and in Jubilee he set the sequence to an 1884 composition by Minkus for the ballet Giselle, but you could choose your own accompaniment. We’d love to hear your suggestions.
