Tracy Emin

Well with the success of my last review (and the fact that I really should spend less time on youtube watching “hamster dance”) I have decided to do a second review. Yes when I last checked Art Freck received 60 views, granted 20 of them were by my mum, 15 by my grandmother 10 were made by me when I forgot my password (again) and 10 made by random people when I spammed their inbox on facebook, but my point still stands (whatever it was). So as promised here is the Tracy Emin review.

Today I am going to be reviewing 2 of her works. “My bed” and “Everyone I ever slept with 1963 – 1995” because I feel these are really deep pieces. (Not because I am a tool who only reviews popular art. Honest it’s not)

Let’s start off with “Everyone I ever slept with 1963 – 1995” aka “My Tent”. The whole piece seems like has the feel of a diary that has been conveniently left unguarded on the floor, I guess the right thing to do in that situation would be to raid the innards for suitable blackmail material and juicy gossip. When you eventually prize the lock open of the diary, er… scratch that. When you enter the tent you discover all the dirty secrets were non existent as the 102 names are people who she has literally slept with like the occasion where as a baby she fell asleep in her mother’s arms. I feel this is a shame as I am sure it contains her time in uni where I assume she must have shared a dorm with several of her female uni friends.

At first glance it appears that the tent is just a run of the mill tent that you would probably pick up at argos in some was £29.99 but now £19.99 offer, and you’d probably be right but that doesn’t mean it loses meaning. First off the colours, Blue tends to be a calming colour and yellow could be associated with gold which is associated with wealth, yada, yada, yada. What I am interested in the contradictions in her choices. For instance yellow (which is used for the walls inside the tent) is a symbol of hope in western cultures (like the rising of a new sun (my god did I just say something that corny) where as in Egypt it is a symbol of death (ah… that’s more like it). Yellow is a sign of danger and of cowardice. Blue is calming but also depressing which also contrasts with the joyous and exciting feel of yellow (much like the quiet nerd compared to his loud drunk comical counter-part who likes to dunk the nerds head in the toilet… God I miss college.) Black is used to divide the walls from the floor which could be used to add a void between Emin and everyone else or to represent that one side has a villainous aura about them; also black is used to make colours seem brighter. (Just check CS4 box art if you want proof)

The first name you see on the wall when you enter is that of her boyfriend of the time Billy Childish and his name seems brighter than everyone else. Tracy herself said that he was a huge influence on her, (much like wiki is to me) so it is only natural he would tack center stage. As well as names there are annotations about what each person done but unfortunately they are scattered around the tent so finding out who done what and to whom is very difficult and the fact that I have only seen a picture of the tent because the real thing now resembles my cooking, owing to both being burnt to cinders, there is no real way to spend hours on deciphering that mystery and mailing it to “the sun” newspaper (sun, fire, see what I did there) and making a fortune.

One of the things that were clear from the low resolution Jpeg image that I am using as a reference is the writing on the floor.
“WITH
MYSELF
ALWAYS MYSELF
NEVER
FORGETTING”

Obliviously this is meant to be her and if you are looking for a blindingly oblivious answer as to why she is on the floor you could say she is sleeping or she is the glue that keeps it all together and links everyone, but I would say that she is there to make it as awkward as possible to get out. If she is on the wall she may be tempted to talk to someone else on that same wall leaving anyone on the adjacent wall time to escape while Tracy is distracted, but being on the floor you would have to step over her and risk wakening her up and then having the awkward conversation on why you have to leave coz you dog is having kittens tomorrow and you promised your aunt you would video the occasion (phew don’t think she suspects a thing).

Next up is the unmade bed imaginatively titled “My Bed”

I would love to claim the moral high ground on this piece but my room is in pretty bad shape as it is. (I would have to have a clean up just to call it a tip) The Piece is an unmade bed *gasp* set within a mess of what appears to be random items. I can’t list all of the features of the bed as I am sure the moderators would have words with me, let’s just say the bed was well used and I am sure a lot of fun was had in it. Unlike the previously mentioned piece which was more innocent than the title suggested “my bed” was a lot more sinister when you discovered the origins. The piece was created when she was going through relationship difficulties. This is the result of a nervous breakdown which leads to suicidal depression.  This makes reviewing this piece awkward for me as I usually like to place a bit of humor into my reviews. Damn you Emin.

An alternate version even contained a hangman’s noose but I feel that was too oblivious. I like the fact that the piece makes you feel awkward and having the ability to lull you into a false sense of security. All honesty before I researched this piece I thought it was a mere novelty piece and I suppose that’s its charm (much like those novelty peanut cans with springy snakes mixed in with the live ones). The piece is obliviously personal and the only way I could see it getting more personal is if the woman herself was to pose naked on her bed (god I have spent too long writing this article).

Next time purely because I could not get into his recent free gallery exhibition (I am not queuing for 3 hours) Banksy.

The preceding article had 25% more plagiarism (yeay for the internet)