Iconoclastic and controversial filmmaker Derek Jarman’s candid journals

“Epiphanies infuse Modern Nature, Derek Jarman’s diaries from 1989 to 1990, with their ebullient evocations of gardening. For Jarman, planting flowers at his wind- and sea-blasted cottage and then reciting their names (endlessly, passionately) becomes sex, becomes the fullness he’s on his way to leaving as he grows sicker from AIDS.” —Village Voice Literary Supplement

“The pace of Jarman’s life as chronicled in Modern Nature is unpredictable. In more energetic moments, Jarman cruises the public parks, makes a film without a script (The Last of England, 1987), and attempts to get Matt Dillon’s heartbeat for a project. He plants saxifrage and sea kale. He starts taking AZT. When Jarman discovered he was seropositive, he set himself a goal: to disclose his status and survive Margaret Thatcher. These he has done with aplomb.” —Artforum

“Courageous stuff.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Modern Nature is a wonderful essay in decorative evasion. . . . The twenty months Jarman covers are filled with artful flashbacks to his childhood, earlier film career, and homosexual history. Few frontline details about the life, work, and daily thoughts of the director of Sebastiane, Caravaggio, and The Garden have been left out.” —Financial Times

One of England’s foremost filmmakers, Derek Jarman (1942–1994) wrote and directed several feature films, including Sebastiane, Jubilee, Caravaggio, and Blue, as well as numerous short films and music videos. He was a stage designer, artist, writer, gardener, and an outspoken AIDS and queer rights activist in the United Kingdom and the United States. He wrote several books, among them At Your Own Risk and Chroma, forthcoming from the University of Minnesota Press.

德雷克‧贾曼（Derek Jarman 1942—1994），画家、诗人，电影导演，独立制片人，同性恋权益活动家，被公认为20世纪（1945年后）英国最重要的视觉艺术家。贾曼的成长背景与他的同性恋意识形成鲜明的对立与冲突，他极具创造力及非凡的勇气和毅力，尤其在发现自己身患艾滋病后，他变得更加率真和桀骜不逊。其创作领域非常宽泛，在三十余年的创作生涯中，以绘画与视觉艺术作品为主，包括油画、拼贴艺术、录像艺术、电影；立体设计方面有装置艺术、舞台设计以及电影场景设计；文字创作方面有电影剧本、与影片拍摄相关之日记、札记与回忆录等。主要电影作品：《塞巴斯蒂安》、《庆典》、《卡拉瓦乔》、《英伦末日》、《战争安魂曲》、《花园》、《爱德华二世》、《维特根斯坦》、《蓝色》等。