Rich pickings: British artist pits craft against commerce

English Magic is a series of works by British artist Jeremy Deller. One piece is a giant mural in which William Morris – leading member of the Arts and Craft movement – has picked up the super yacht of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and is poised to plunge it into the sea.

Morris is a canonical figure in the history of British craft who Deller offers up as a sort of redemption for modernity gone mad. In this piece, Morris stands for integrity, craftsmanship and workshop production, while Abramovich’s yacht represents the distortive effect of mis-distributed wealth – on the art world, and on wider society. 

Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Deller acknowledged that his exhibit was about craft and that his own craft was the thinking behind it. 

Having observed the rising trend for integrating craft-like markings and signs of the human hand into technological products and imagery, LS:N Global is interested in Deller’s statement that one reason he idolises Morris is ‘the way he humanised the industrial revolution’.