Tracey Emin
September 2004
Tracey Emin describes her work as '…about life. Everyone understands that, everyone lives a life so they understands that I'm just using mine to make my art'. (1)
By skilfully disseminating aspects of a particularly violent and troubled early life into various media, i.e. video, paintings, printmaking, drawings, appliqué and text-based work, Emin has succeeded in producing a body of work which has been described as possessing both, 'a disturbing streak of sexual abjection (and) full passion and striving loveliness' (2). Emin cleverly utilizes text in most of her work, appliquéd into her infamous tent, Everyone I have Ever Slept With 1963-1995 (1995), on a blanket made with clothing provided by friends, Mad Tracey from Margate, Everyone's Been There (1997) and in her neon sign-writing.
Text is generally incorporated into her drawings and monotypes as short commentaries or titles. In her book, Exploration of the Soul (1994), Emin chronicles her early life in the seaside town of Margate, replete with such graphic details as the loss of her virginity. In 1995 she opened The Tracey Emin Museum, a space to display and explore her work. Simmons & Simmons advised Emin on the lease of property, a lock up shop in Waterloo Road, London SE1.
This print made for the suite of text-based prints entitled Other Men's Flowers (1994), is unusual as the artist herself is not the central focus of the piece. Emin's print is a moving portrait of Joseph Samuels, a friend of the artist's twin brother Paul. It is a paean to the lost days of hanging around on the seafront, dodging the law, dabbling in drugs, concluding with a harrowing description of Samuel's disturbing and violent death, possibly by the hands of some thug-like marines. These events are delineated in Emin's distinctive, spiky scrawl. Evocative and honestly transcribed, it is a genuine and moving piece.
1. ID Magazine, no. 164, May 1997
2. Matthew Collings, Blimey! (Cambridge, 1997), p. 110
By skilfully disseminating aspects of a particularly violent and troubled early life into various media, i.e. video, paintings, printmaking, drawings, appliqué and text-based work, Emin has succeeded in producing a body of work which has been described as possessing both, 'a disturbing streak of sexual abjection (and) full passion and striving loveliness' (2). Emin cleverly utilizes text in most of her work, appliquéd into her infamous tent, Everyone I have Ever Slept With 1963-1995 (1995), on a blanket made with clothing provided by friends, Mad Tracey from Margate, Everyone's Been There (1997) and in her neon sign-writing.
Text is generally incorporated into her drawings and monotypes as short commentaries or titles. In her book, Exploration of the Soul (1994), Emin chronicles her early life in the seaside town of Margate, replete with such graphic details as the loss of her virginity. In 1995 she opened The Tracey Emin Museum, a space to display and explore her work. Simmons & Simmons advised Emin on the lease of property, a lock up shop in Waterloo Road, London SE1.
This print made for the suite of text-based prints entitled Other Men's Flowers (1994), is unusual as the artist herself is not the central focus of the piece. Emin's print is a moving portrait of Joseph Samuels, a friend of the artist's twin brother Paul. It is a paean to the lost days of hanging around on the seafront, dodging the law, dabbling in drugs, concluding with a harrowing description of Samuel's disturbing and violent death, possibly by the hands of some thug-like marines. These events are delineated in Emin's distinctive, spiky scrawl. Evocative and honestly transcribed, it is a genuine and moving piece.
1. ID Magazine, no. 164, May 1997
2. Matthew Collings, Blimey! (Cambridge, 1997), p. 110
Jennifer Ramkalawon