Modern Nature

“The Nature of Modernity” is a diary and profound meditation by artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman. The entries cover the years 1989–1990, and in 1986 he learned of his HIV-positive status. Faced with an uncertain future, Jarman returned to one of his childhood hobbies - gardening - and established a garden near a cottage on the barren coast of Dungeness, Great Britain. Here, among the winds, sea breezes and a rocky desert, near a nuclear power station, he grew plants - some perished, others surprised with incredible beauty. This is a book about nature as a space of the wild and spontaneous, which sprouts even in the harshest conditions; about culture as a given and nature as something that is cultivated; about personal courage, sensuality and the search for beauty in the heart of isolation.