Karen Stephenson
The artwork by Karen Stephenson has been made specifically for Prime Projects and is a response to the work of the filmmaker and painter Derek Jarman. His journals entitled Modern Nature and Smiling in Slow Motion document the time between 1989 and 1994 when Jarman was receiving treatment for HIV/AIDS during the health crisis caused by this new virus of which very little was known. Many of his friends and colleagues were affected and were dying young. His response to this was to build a garden at Dungeness, Romney Marsh, Kent. It was a singularly creative and optimistic response to the dark times - a fierce challenge to fate. From this garden grew a new style of planting, responding specifically to the difficult conditions of weather and soil and salt that he found there on this exposed shingle beach area, within site of the dark shadow of Dungeness Nuclear Power Station. He also completed many film projects, videos, theatre projects, paintings, books, and poems during this time. His journals are a place where Jarman brought together his thoughts on all this and his experience as a patient during a time of confusion - doubts and worries, but also the wonder of happenstance, kindness, fleeting moments of connection, gossip and dark humour. This work for Prime Projects is a celebration of hope and growth and connection during dark times, bringing together a hospital scene in the nurturing and growing environment of an allotment. Art and gardening as therapy.
