Sam Taylor-Wood

Sam Taylor-Wood
Sam Taylor-Wood in March 2010
Born	4 March 1967 (1967-03-04) Croydon, United Kingdom
Occupation	Film director, artist
Years active	1993-present
Spouse	Jay Jopling (m. 1997—2008; 2 children)
Partner	Aaron Johnson (2009—present; 2 children)
Children	4 daughters

Samantha "Sam" Taylor-Wood OBE (born 4 March 1967), born Samantha Taylor, is an English filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist. Her directorial feature film debut came in 2009 with Nowhere Boy, a film based on the childhood experiences of The Beatles songwriter and singer John Lennon. She is one of a group of artists known as the Young British Artists.

Early life and career

Taylor-Wood was born in Croydon, England. The daughter of David and Geraldine, she has one younger sister Ashley and they grew up near Streatham Common in south London. Writing in The Telegraph, journalist Anna van Praag said Taylor-Wood was born "to a yoga-teacher and astrologist mother, Taylor-Wood's biker father left when she was nine. It prompted her mother to enroll the family in a commune in Sussex, where they wore orange robes and took Sanskrit names, all of which Taylor-Wood hated." Taylor-Wood's mother remarried, this time to a fellow yoga teacher, just prior to moving the family to East Sussex.Taylor-Wood later told Miranda Sawyer: "It was horrible, I hated the countryside, I got frightened by trees." At age 11 she gained a maternal half brother named Kristian. Her mother and step-father split up when she was 15 but this time it was her mother that left leaving Taylor-Wood in the care of her step-father.

26 October 1993 by Henry Bond and Sam Taylor-Wood (1993)

Fine art career

Taylor-Wood began exhibiting fine art photography in the early-1990s. One collaboration with Henry Bond, titled 26 October 1993, featured Bond and Taylor-Wood reprising the roles of Yoko Ono and John Lennon in a pastiche of the photo-portrait made—by photographer Annie Leibovitz—a few hours before Lennon was assassinated, in 1980.

In 1994, she exhibited a multi-screen video work titled Killing Time, in which four people mimed to an opera score. From that point multi-screen video works became the main focus of Taylor-Wood's work. Beginning with the video works Travesty of a Mockery and Pent-Up in 1996. Taylor-Wood was nominated for the annual Turner Prize in 1998, but lost out to the painter Chris Ofili. She won the Illy Café Prize for Most Promising Young Artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale.^{[citation needed]}

In 2000, Taylor-Wood created a wraparound, photomural around scaffolding of the London department store Selfridges while it was being restored; the mural featured 21 cultural icons including Elton John, musician Alex James and actors Richard E. Grant and Ray Winstone. The poses of the figures referenced famous works of art from the past and recent movies.

In 2002, Taylor-Wood was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to make a video portrait of David Beckham—whom she depicted sleeping. She is perhaps best known for her work entitled 'Crying Men' which features many of Hollywood's glitterati crying, including Robin Williams, Sean Penn, Laurence Fishburne, and Paul Newman.

Nowhere Boy

In August 2008, Taylor-Wood was chosen to direct Nowhere Boy, a biopic about the childhood of The Beatles singer, John Lennon.

Speaking about her experience directing the movie, in September 2010, Taylor-Wood said,

"I thought, 'I'm in too deep and if I mess this up I'm just never gonna make a film again,' and I went into a panic. I got into the car and said, 'I just have to call these producers and pull out. I got into the car and I put the key into the ignition and Lennon's voice came straight out of the radio and it was [the Lennon song] Starting Over. It was one of those moments where I thought it was a sign: 'OK I'm gonna do it.'"

The 53rd annual London Film Festival screened the film as its closing presentation on 29 October 2009. The film was released in the UK on Boxing Day, 2009. Charles Gant, writing in The Guardian—three weeks after the film's national release—said that the film had "extremely disappointing receipts." Taylor-Wood was nominated for a BAFTA award on 21 January 2010, but lost out to Duncan Jones.

After five weeks on release in the USA, as of November 7, 2010, the film had taken $1,196,019.

Other film and television work

In 2008, Taylor-Wood directed a short film Love You More, written by Patrick Marber and produced by Anthony Minghella. The film includes two songs by Buzzcocks and features a cameo appearance by the band's lead singer Pete Shelley. In February 2009, Sam Taylor-Wood, collaborating with Sky Arts chose to interpret Vesti la Giubba from Pagliacci. She commented: "I’m really happy to be involved in such a great project. I think by capturing one of opera's most moving moments in a film short, we have put a modern spin on the aria." In 2011, she directed the music video of "Überlin" by R.E.M.. The clip stars her fiance Aaron Johnson, who, "throws some kung-fu kicks, attempts some pirouettes, prances, punches the air, chicken walks, tries out some bunny impressions, and, at one point, fondles his bottom."

Personal life

Taylor-Wood with Aaron Johnson in September 2010

In the early 1990s, Taylor-Wood was in a relationship with artist Henry Bond.

Taylor-Wood married art dealer Jay Jopling in 1997. Together they have two daughters: Angelica (born 1997) and Jessie (born 2006). In September 2008, Taylor-Wood and Jopling announced that they were separating amicably after 11 years of marriage.

Taylor-Wood began a relationship with her Nowhere Boy star Aaron Johnson, who is 23 years her junior, after meeting on the 2009 set of the film. The couple announced their engagement at the film's premiere in October 2009. The couple have two daughters: Wylda Rae (born 2010) and Romy Hero (born 2012).

Taylor-Wood has overcome two spells of cancer. In December 1997, at age 30, she suffered from and was treated for late-diagnosed colon cancer. Three years later, in 2000, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She claims that chemotherapy saved her life, together with her own will to live.^{[citation needed]}

In 2009, Taylor-Wood made a cash payment of £11 million for a detached townhouse in Primrose Hill, London.

Taylor-Wood was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to the arts.

External links

• Sam Taylor-Wood at the Internet Movie Database
• White Cube bio page
• BBC Collective Sam Taylor-Wood video interview about her show Still Lives at Baltic, plus a gallery of images
• Sam Taylor-Wood on artnet
• David Video David Beckham Sleeping Video at Liverpool Walker Gallery