Derek Jarman at Prospect Cottage

Derek Jarman was born in 1942 and is well known for his work as the director and cinematographer of ‘Caravaggio’ (1986), ‘Edward II’ (1991) and ‘Wittgenstein’ (1993). He made eleven feature length films as well as many short films and music videos for artists such as The Smiths, The Sex Pistols and The Pet Shop Boys to name a few. His artistic work expands beyond film to set design, paintings, sculptures, books as well as his garden.

The garden is a work of art reflecting Jarman’s life. From 1986 Jarman lived with HIV and died from an AIDS related illness in 1994. Jarman had the garden until his death and described it and gardening as an act of love and grief, as he lost close friends to the disease.

In ‘Modern Nature’ (1992), his published journals recording the creation of the garden, he describes it as ‘a memorial, each circular bed and dial a true lover’s knot’.

‘My garden’s boundaries are the horizon’ - Jarman in ‘Modern Nature’.

The unique landscape at Dungeness is an essential part of his garden. He never divided the shingle beach or nuclear power station beyond from his garden, in fact it was his favourite aspect of the garden. In his final book ‘Derek Jarman’s Garden’ he writes ‘But above all I love that, visually, the garden doesn’t end.’

While the unique landscape enhanced the garden, it was also a great challenge. Dungeness is very exposed with strong salty winds, little shade and almost no soil.

Jarman created the garden by hand, digging into the shingle, building beds and banks to help with the difficult growing conditions. He would sometimes use manure from a local farm and as the years passed soil started to form from the fall of vegetation.

Photographer Howard Sooley worked in the garden with Jarman and recalls that ‘It always felt miraculous to me that anything could grow there, nothing was taken for granted, every plant that found its way, grew and blossomed was special -gardening against the odds- this wasn’t wasted on Derek.’

Sooley had been commissioned in 1990 to photograph Jarman and the pair became friends spending many hours in garden together. The photographs in this exhibition were all taken by Sooley between his first visit in 1990 and Jarman’s death in 1994.

The back garden was more random, lacking the formal shapes of the front, and the space developed a fluid structure governed by the plants in each season.

Native plants such as sea kale, wild peas and the poppies planted themselves. Jarman worked with them, sprinkling additional seeds and introducing new plants from local nurseries. Plants had to be hardy to survive the coastal weather and extreme summer sun which would heat the shingle. He brought santolina, sage, lavender and curry plants which could survive these conditions.

The beach at Dungeness is scattered with dilapidated sheds, rusty tools and rotting boats stranded in the sand. Driftwood along with debris from the Second World War and around the world washes ashore.

Jarman collected these objects and used them to create the unique sculptures in his garden, as he records in ‘Modern Nature’ ‘spent the day beachcombing, discovered an anchor and wooden oars for the garden’. This brought the landscape not just visually but physically into the garden.

Sculpture in Jarman's garden.

Sculpture in Jarman's garden.

Sculpture in Jarman's garden.

‘Derek fought illness with openness, busying himself with so many things that there was little time or room left for illness. In a way it worked, and for a time he cheated death hiding amongst the flowers dancing with the bees.’ – Howard Sooley

In 1994 Derek Jarman died from an AIDS related illness. He was buried not far from Prospect Cottage in the graveyard at St Clement’s Church, Old Romeny. Jarman left a creative legacy not only in his films but also horticulturally. His garden is one of the most influential of modern times and unique in its relationship to the landscape at Dungeness.

It is an example of how a garden became inseparable from illness but also how gardening became a resolution. Even when hospitalised Jarman would take out his drip and visit the site. Sooley recalls that ‘Derek never appeared happier, more at ease and content than when he was gardening.’