Jeremy Deller (b. 1966, London; lives London) has developed a
unique artistic practice as instigator, curator and producer,
giving prominence to cultural communities generally ignored in
mainstream cultural consumption. Among his best known projects are
Acid Brass (from 1997), fusing the musical genres and
cultural traditions of brass band and techno music, and The
Battle of Orgreave (2001), a filmed re-enactment of the 1984
battle between miners and police. Deller has produced works
involving animals, notably Memory Bucket (2003) which
brought together the Waco massacre, George W. Bush and a colony of
bats in flight, and the Bat House Project (from 2006), an
architectural competition to design a home for bats in
London.
Deller focused while in the Galápagos in late 2010 on the cultural
conventions imported to the Islands by its inhabitants. He chose
not to engage specifically with the scientific community, rather
spending time with the people of Puerto Ayora, respectfully
observing the ways they organise their lives. He was particularly
drawn to the profusion of churches and religious denominations,
noting their espousal of creationism in a place so closely
associated with Darwin.
Deller produced a record of cock-fighting, which occurred weekly
in a breeze-block structure in scrubland near the power station on
Santa Cruz Island.1 It is, predominantly, a popular social event:
families are present, money changes hands, there are noisy scenes
both of people interacting and cocks battling. Deller dwells on the
rituals of the occasion including the fitting of spurs on the
birds. Underlying the presentation, never overtly stated, is the
tension - Deller has used the word 'blasphemy' - of witnessing
cock-fighting in a place where visitors are more accustomed to
blue-footed boobies' mating dances.
In May 2011, the year after Jeremy Deller visited the
Galápagos Islands, cock-fighting was outlawed in Ecuador by a
referendum.
