It would be too simple to say that Jeremy Deller is interested in history. It would be more accurate to say he’s interested in things that aren’t there; or things that were once there; or perhaps things that could have been there. Protesting miners, deceased soldiers, inflatable sites of pagan worship have all been created or re-created by the Turner prize-winning artist, who has now turned his hand to a “speculative [Roman] mosaic” for Scarborough’s Wild Eye coastal art and nature trail.
Created with sculptor Coralie Turpin, Deller’s mosaic is a “semi-trick” – a suggestion of a Roman masterpiece that has been uncovered on the shores of the seaside town with genuine Roman history. On the cliffs above the work sits the remains of a Roman signal station, and the mosaic is fragmented and inaccurate as if made from memory rather than a photograph, generating a sense of authenticity. “In 100 years’ time – or whenever – when this is all underwater and it is rediscovered, someone will think ‘Fuck, there was a Roman villa here,’” says Deller.
