Turner Prize Winner Jeremy Deller Marks WWI Centenary With New App

Turner Prize

Jeremy Deller, the Turner Prize winning artist best known for his ‘Lights Out Lights On’ installation, now in the permanent collection of the Tate has created a new free app as part of 14-18 NOW, the cultural programme marking the centenary of the First World War.  The work comprises four films devised by the artist which audiences in the UK and across the world will be able to watch for free by downloading an app, available from today. The work is co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW and The Space, and is produced by Somethin’ Else.

The work has been commissioned as part of a dramatic UK-wide event to mark the centenary of the outbreak of war in the UK; an invitation to everyone to turn off their lights from 10pm to 11pm on 4 August, leaving on a single light or candle for a shared moment of reflection. The LIGHTS OUT ask is simple, but its overall effect will be creative, dramatic and poignant. Every member of every community in the UK is invited to respond to LIGHTS OUT.

From the 1 August a new film by Deller will be revealed each day, culminating in a final film being revealed at 10pm on 4 August itself. Audiences will be able to watch the final film until 11pm that night, when the entire series of films will disappear.

This is one of a number of artworks created for LIGHTS OUT, with four other works commissioned across the UK.  Each work takes the concept of a single source of light in the darkness as a point of departure.  The other artworks are:  a large-scale video projection across the entire Western and Southern façades of the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh by Bombay-based artist Nalini Malani, commissioned with the Edinburgh Art Festival; Welsh artist Bedwyr William’s work will take the form of a large-scale light and sound installation presented at the site of the WW1 North Wales Memorial Arch in Bangor, commissioned with Artes Mundi; leading artist Bob and Roberta Smith’s new large-scale work using thousands of candles will be created by a range of community based groups in Belfast, commissioned with Factotum.  Across London a special project will be revealed on the night of 4th August.

The works represent the diversity of contemporary artists working today and reflect the range of artistic practice, from video projection and digital media to sculpture and performance. The presentation of these works is at the very centre of LIGHTS OUT.

Jenny Waldman, Director of 14-18 NOW, said:
“Jeremy Deller has created a stunning app which offers a new and exciting way for people to experience LIGHTS OUT. I’m looking forward to seeing the short films released each day, leading up to the LIGHTS OUT event at 10pm on 4th August which a host of iconic buildings, war memorials and homes across the UK will be participating in. I’d like to congratulate Jeremy and to The Space on this new work.”

Ruth Mackenzie, Launch Director, The Space, said:
“Jeremy Deller has created beautiful new digital war art, a twenty first century response to the 14-18 war, which finds a new artistic vocabulary to help us think, pity, wonder.  I am so grateful to him and to our partners, 14-18 Now.”

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