4.6.21 - Tracey Emin

 Tracey Emin, CBE, RA, born 3 July 1963 is an English artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and sewn appliqué. Once the "enfant terrible" of the Young British Artists in the 1980s, Tracey Emin is now a Royal Academician.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracey_Emin

Tracey Emin’s ‘My Bed’ is an uncanny, realist piece that provides inspiration for the final piece of my project.

I like the shades of off-white fabric that Emin has used as they imply an element of emptiness and pathos, a life without colour.

 The bed is one of the most vulnerable, intimate settings and is surrounded by indications of the person’s life with personal items and imprints of their movements preserved in the crumpled sheets. It exists in a very present way, a freeze frame of the moment they got up and left.

This human touch is something I always want to communicate in my art, and the decision to make bedding for my final piece is a reminder of that humanity and vulnerability. This piece makes me feel that it’s okay for my art to have flaws, because they are just a sign that there is a real person behind the work. 


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