See Jeremy Deller's English Magic at the William Morris Gallery

Originally commissioned by the British Council for the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2013, Jeremy Deller's English Magic runs until 30th March at the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, a venue presumably chosen due to Morris' central role in a large mural showing him throwing Roman Abramovich’s yacht into the Venice lagoon.


It's quite a political exhibition, which Deller says in the accompanying video that he hopes makes us mad 'for the wrong or right reasons', and politically-themed items associated with Morris have been chosen from the gallery's collection to display alongside Deller's material, which features houses being burned in St Helier, Jersey in protest at secretive banking and pencil drawings of the likes of Tony Blair and Dr David Kelly drawn by prison inmates who served as soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan. Whatever you make of the content, it's well executed and the messages are simply and forcefully communicated, and it's free to visit.

For more, see http://www.wmgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions-43/jeremy-deller-english-magic