But if you can let go early in the process, have an intelligent conversation with the public and be open to surprises, then the outcomes can be unexpected and better. As with his famous drawing The History of the World, a flow diagram of how popular culture can sometimes shape the course of history, even predict it, his entire practice sometimes feels like an epic attempt to prove that everything is connected. From his inflatable Stonehenge for the Glasgow International Festival to the Miners’ Strike, bats (a subject in at least three of Deller’s works), and Andy Warhol, to the links between the Industrial Revolution and heavy metal, hen harriers pecking out the eyes of a Tory MP and the Somme anniversary piece We’re Here Because We’re Here, there is something for art lovers, fans and the culturally curious alike. It is subtitled “a children’s book for adults”, which somewhat underplays the provocative political undertow of some of the projects described within, whether it is his epic reenactment of the “Battle of Orgreave” during the miners’ strike or his 2019 film Putin’s Happy, which captures the febrile atmosphere of the Brexit protests in Parliament Square. View image in fullscreen Deller during the filming of his 2001 re-enactment of The Battle of Orgreave.

I wanted to see why they were like that, what had happened to make them so aggressively bound to this cause.Oh man do yourself a favour, don’t waste your time reading this review, and instead go onto YT and watch Deller’s excellent “Everybody In The Place” followed by all the rest of his stuff you can get access to. Folkestone Book Festival is our annual celebration of books, ideas, reading and writing in its many magical forms. In a society that claims to open up access to culture and continues to provide a model to follow on what is culturally and intellectually acceptable from what is not, Deller gets away and plays with these societal stereotypes by focusing on subcultures, folklore, people.

He won the Turner Prize in 2004 for his work Memory Bucket and represented Britain in the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. Art is Magic is the first publication in which Deller reflects on the entirety of his career, his life and his art. Growing up I played in brass bands and so feel a strong affinity with Deller describing the happiness he feels hanging around steel bands – a collaborative endeavour where everyone’s contributing by playing their part. It is divided into three sections: a visual guide through his favourite work, in-depth reflections on his life and art and, finally, a scrapbook of images to explain what drives him (from Rod Stewart to bats, the perfect jukebox to neolithic axe heads). Part autobiography, part coffee table tome, part chats-with-friends, it is a delicious hybrid that clearly and enjoyably presents a unique collection of work with a coherent set of concerns and interests.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. His singular way of seeing, he says, is rooted even further back in a childhood absorbing pop culture via the TV.

I only really discovered Deller’s art relatively recently and I have to say I find his work absolutely fascinating.We’ve spent the last four years working on new buildings for visitors to Stonehenge and have enjoyed engaging with its complex web of archaeology, mythology and democracy that seem to continually evolve in response to the nation’s shifting psyche. It’s also a beautiful book, using full bleed images, colour, layering and typography to support the original work and tell a new story that makes sense of the journey. The book features work from across Deller’s life and art and includes Sacrilege, the inflatable Stonehenge, the Iggy Pop Life Class, The Battle of Orgreave, a recreation of a confrontation from the Miners’ Strike, bats (a subject in at least three of Deller’s works), Andy Warhol (whom he met in 1986), rave culture, hen harriers pecking out the eyes of a Tory MP, and a giant Chameleon slide. He is devoid of the pretentiousness that can blight so much of the art landscape, and has a way of getting deep to the heart of his subjects, making them accessible as well as hugely enjoyable.