New article shines light on ‘unselfish devotion’ of Keith Collins to artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman

New article shines light on ‘unselfish devotion’ of Keith Collins to artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman

A new article by an academic in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Cultures has revealed unique insights into the relationship between the artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman and Keith Collins, Jarman’s ‘overlooked’ ‘muse’, ‘companion’ and ‘carer’.

Published in the journal In-Sight, 'A Queer Collaboration: Keith Collins and Derek Jarman’ by Dr Jim Brogden, Director of Practice Research at the School of Media and Communication, includes a verbatim transcript of an interview with Collins (aka ‘H.B’) in 2013, five years before the latter’s death.

The transcript reveals insights into Collins’ life with Jarman – a filmmaker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, poet, gardener, and gay rights activist – from 1987 until Jarman’s death from AIDS in 1994. It also demonstrates the significant contributions made by Collins to Jarman’s artistic practice.

Postcard sent to Dr Jim Brogden by Derek Jarman in 1993, signed by Derek and stating that he feels ‘a bit wobbly’

Dr Jim Brogden, Director of Practice Research at the School of Media and Communication, said:

‘In many ways, Collins was Jarman’s artistic ‘muse’, erudite companion, fellow gardener, and compassionate carer during Jarman’s final years suffering with AIDS. As the subsequent custodian of Prospect Cottage [Jarman’s home in Kent] and garden until his own death from a brain tumor in 2018 and “torchbearer” for Jarman’s artistic legacy and archive, Collins’ devotion has been largely overlooked by British art culture, and beyond.

‘The interview seeks to resituate and celebrate a unique example of queer collaboration and friendship between Derek Jarman and Keith Collins, referred to by Bruce Webber as the “greatest love story”.

‘Moreover, the Collins interview provides a series of candid historical reflections informed by ‘lived experience’, from which to re-examine the legacy of a particular English queer artistic milieu during a tumultuous period in British socio-cultural life.

‘After much reflection, now seems to be an appropriate time to release this engaging and increasingly poignant reminder of Collins’ forgotten contribution to the work of Jarman, his unselfish devotion to another’s creative ambition and artistic legacy.’

Dr Jim Brogden’s research inhabits a broad area within visual communication culture, including visual sociology/ethnography, social semiotics and multimodality, memory studies, and photographic practice, with a particular interest in the contested notions surrounding landscape representation, collective memory, and place – identity. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the International Visual Sociology Association, and a member of the Open Spaces Society.

Brogden, W, J. (2024) ‘A Queer Collaboration: Derek Jarman and Keith Collins’, Outliers and Outsiders, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12 (2): 32-51. (ISSN) 2369-6885

Link> https://in-sightpublishing.com/2024/02/01/brogden-collins/