This month we’re featuring studio member Jez Dolan, who is currently the artist in residence at Manchester Art Gallery as part of the exhibition Derek Jarman Protest!, a major retrospective of one of the most influential figures in 20th century British culture.

For the past decade Jez Dolan’s practice has underlined the intersections between queerness, sexuality, identity and memory. These interests are expressed in a range of mediums including, drawing, installation, printmaking and performance, utilising the medium which best expresses the message for each individual work.

We caught up with Jez to ask how the residency is going.

What’s been your highlight of this residency so far?

I’ve spent every Thursday afternoon for the run of the exhibition in the gallery, and spending so much time embedded in the work has been such a joy and a privilege. I feel such a deep attachment for the whole exhibition, it's been brilliantly curated by Fiona Corridan from MAG, and it's been a real pleasure to work with her. I’ve done a lot of tours for visitors which has been a brilliant experience, and have met lots of people who weren’t familiar with Jarman, and have loved discovering his work. Also I’ve met lots of people who had a personal connection to him, which has brought everything much closer. After one tour I was approached by a woman who had been one of the nurses who nursed Derek through his last illness. Her and four other colleagues had made a special trip to see the show. It was a really emotional moment.

How has Jarman influenced your work?

Jarman has been my artistic hero for many years, which is why I kind of threw myself at MAG to make the residency happen. I think above all it is his attitude to making work that I most admire. The breadth and diversity of his practice was huge, especially considering how debilitated he was towards the end of his life with HIV/AIDS. He ignored boundaries, and worked with what inspired him, and who inspired him. He was a huge collaborator, and worked over years with a ‘family’ of artists and practitioners across art forms. He was hugely political, and really important

What do you think is Jarman's legacy to queer art today?

This is one of the things I really wanted to explore in the residency, and I think maybe we have just started to scratch the surface with this. Lots of younger queer artists have become involved in the participatory and discussion sessions, many of them knowing little or nothing about him. Some have really started to engage with his work on a serious level. The exhibition has been so well received by so many people, and I really think that we are on the edge of a new found appreciation and understanding of his continuing significance. I really hope so.

The Graeco-Roman View of Youth (2014) jez dolan.jpeg

NANCY (2012) Digital photograph, Anders Als Die Andern, Custom printed flags (2018) and The Graeco-Roman View of Youth (2014) Screenprint on Fabriano paper by Jez Dolan.

There are several upcoming events as part of Jez’ residency you can get involved with:

STORMY WEATHER - a day of debate, defiance & celebration, Manchester Art Gallery Friday 8th April

Jez Dolan is collaborating with the Queer British Art Research Group to present a day of debate using the exhibition and Jarman’s practice as a leaping-off point for discussion and interventions. The symposium will welcome artists, academics, curators, students, writers and those with a general interest in Jarman’s life, works and legacy.

The Canonisation of David Hoyle, Manchester’s Gay Village & Manchester Art Gallery Saturday 9th April

As a finale to Derek Jarman PROTEST!, Jez Dolan and The Manchester Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are holding the canonisation of performance-art icon, David Hoyle, hereafter to be referred to as Saint David of the Avant-Garde, in the renowned splendour of Manchester Art Gallery.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a worldwide order of queer nuns, the tenets of the order are the promulgation of universal joy and the expiation of stigmatic guilt. It is with this in mind that The Sisters will be making their first English Saint since Derek Jarman (Saint Derek of Dungeness) in 1991. The ceremony will begin with the procession accompanied by a Parade Band from New York New York, in Manchester’s gay village to Manchester Art Gallery.