jeremy deller's roman mosaic recalls scarborough’s marine life

Jeremy Deller’s Roman Mosaic appears on marine drive

Jeremy Deller shapes a large-scale, Roman-style mosaic on Scarborough’s Marine Drive, recalling the coast’s marine life and ancient past. Working with sculptor and mosaic artist Coralie Turpin, the Turner Prize-winning artist has unveiled his permanent work as part of Wild Eye’s series. Named Roman Mosaic c. 2025, Jeremy Deller has collaborated with local scientists, conservationists, archaeologists, and community groups for the artwork.

The installation also concludes the series of Wild Eye, a collaborative art and nature program between Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Invisible Dust. It brings together artists who produce artworks for people in the Scarborough and Whitby area. These are installations related to the theme of wildlife found along the North Yorkshire coast. Some of the artists who have worked for the series include Juneau Projects, Ryan Gander, Shezad Dawood with Daisy Hildyard, Emma Smith, and Paul Morrison.

all images courtesy of Wild Eye | photos by Jules Lister

Artwork as part of Seawatching Station in Scarborough, UK

Jeremy Deller’s Roman Mosaic c. 2025 forms part of the newsly launched Seawatching Station on Marine Drive in Scarborough, UK. Spanning the floor of the sea-watching station, visitors can view the fragmentary installation and mosaic up close. Once they do, they can study the small blocks that make up the permanent artwork. Patches of visual stories come into view. A sailing boat wades through the water, cruising with its tiny net out. Then, there’s a large humpback whale swimming underneath the vessel. Above the boat, two dolphins seemingly act playful.

It’s a cacophony of history and story around Jeremy Deller’s Roman Mosaic c. 2025. A Roman bust blows gusts; a lobster clamps fish on its left claw; a seal opens its mouth, ready to snap up another fish; a half-bodied manta ray swims; a squid with two wide eyes floats; and birds fly. In a podcast interview with the Social Broadcasts, the artist, alongside the sculptor, says that the references around Roman Mosaic c. 2025 allow bird spotters, anglers, and people who are into the local wildlife to recognize them immediately. If they don’t look closely, they might miss his nod to the walrus that came up from the sea a few years ago and sat on the very pier he shapes his artwork on.

Jeremy Deller shapes a large-scale, Roman-style mosaic on Scarborough’s Marine Drive

Roman history and ancient technique for the installation

Jeremy Deller’s Roman Mosaic c. 2025 is meant to be viewed from above or a high place, like from the sea-watching station. The first time he visited the site on Marine Drive, nothing pulled him when he looked at the empty space at the pier. He started thinking about how he could make it interesting. Nothing came up until he was on his way back to the city: a public artwork best seen from above. Off he went, but before he started, he had to find a mosaicist. He admitted not having the technical skills to pull something so large on his own.

Enter Coralie Turpin, who helped bring his marine-life vision to life. Jeremy Deller didn’t imagine a complete artwork for Roman Mosaic c. 2025, and it resulted in that way. It’s a speculative mosaic, one where the visitors hold the vision to complete the canvas on their own. What he knows for sure is that Scarborough has a Roman history; hence, his use of the ancient technique for the installation. For one, there’s a Roman signal station on the headland just above the site as well as a nearby castle with Roman remains inside. But that theme alone may not resonate with the rich marine life in the area, so Jeremy Deller brought over the motifs that invoke such. From today on, the artists’ Roman Mosaic c. 2025 remains on Marine Drive, recollecting ancient memories and the wildlife’s ebb and flow.

the artwork evidently recalls the coast’s marine life and ancient past