Today – Jeremy Deller: Father and Son
JEREMY DELLER: FATHER AND SON
PRESENTED BY ACCA AT ST SAVIOUR’S CHURCH OF EXILES
6 OXFORD STREET, COLLINGWOOD, MELBOURNE
6 NOVEMBER 2021, MIDDAY TO MIDNIGHT
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” — John 5:19
Jeremy Deller’s Father and Son is a time-based sculptural installation which takes the form of public vigil, as an invitation for the public to bear witness to, and reflect upon, questions of power, influence and generational change, represented through the allegorical depiction of a father and son, cast in the soft light of remembrance.
Father and Son is presented at an historical moment of social change, in which existing power structures are increasingly being scrutinised as part of public discourse. Through the lens of art history, religion and popular culture, Father and Son explores questions of generational change, and the legacies we leave for future generations.
Of the new work Jeremy Deller has said: “The bible has been the greatest inspiration in making this work with its stories of conflict, families and transformation. It’s a book I absorbed as a child and since then I seem to have spent most of my life wandering around churches and museums. To me in some ways they are interchangeable spaces, in which the boundary between the sacred and profane is blurred”.
Max Delany, ACCA Artistic Director/CEO, said: “ACCA is delighted to be working with Jeremy Deller on the artist’s latest work, an ambitious, one-day only sculptural installation to be presented in a deconsecrated church in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood. Deller’s works have consistently redefined the role and form of contemporary art and have engaged some of the most important contemporary issues of our times. While often ephemeral in nature, in the form of performances and one-off events, his projects endure through the conversations, imagination and the resonant engagement they evoke”.
Following an extended period of dialogue with the artist, Annika Kristensen, ACCA’s Curator-at-Large says: “It has been a true pleasure to work with Jeremy Deller to realise this project, which welcomes visitors to contemplate a moment of profound generational, social and structural change. Situated in an ecclesiastical context, the work pays tribute to institutions larger than the individuals represented as father and son – including religion, media, politics and family – calling into question our own relationship to such systems, while encouraging reflection upon our individual agency in the world.”
Jeremy Deller is a Turner Prize-winning artist working across video, sculpture, installation and events. Father and Son is a major time-based sculptural work and the artist’s first commission in Australia. It follows Deller’s long history of internationally renowned projects across video, sculpture, installation and events, including We’re here because we’re here 2016, a commemorative event that took place across Britain on the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, and The Battle of Orgreave 2001, a site-specific performance that recreated the clash between police and miners during the Miners’ Strike of 1984-85. In 2013, Deller represented Great Britain with the exhibition English Magic at the 55th Venice Biennale, following the career retrospective Joy in People, presented at the Hayward Gallery, London in 2012.
Jeremy Deller: Father and Son
Saturday 6 November 2021, midday–midnight
St Saviour’s Church of Exiles
6 Oxford Street
Collingwood, Melbourne, 3066
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
acca.melbourne
#JeremyDellerFatherAndSon #ACCAMelbourne
For further media information:
Katrina Hall 0421153046 kathall@ozemail.com.au
ACCA acknowledges the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as sovereign custodians of the land on which we work and welcome visitors, who have cared for Country and culture over millennia, and continue to do so. We extend our respect to ancestors and Elders past, present and emerging, and to all First Nations people.