Fiercely Independent (Tracey Emin)

Tracey Emin is a multidimensional British Artist who has achieved many honors in her illustrious career. Her works include painting, sculpture, drawing, film, photography, and neon text. A Dame of the British Empire she rose to fame beginning in 1997 with her appliqued tent “Everyone I have ever slept with” shown at Charles Saatchi’s exhibition “Sensations” at the Royal Academy. In 1999 she was a nominee for the Turner Prize and she exhibited her “scandalous” work, My Bed. This work brought her a lot of recognition however it is not what makes me an admirer of her practice.What draws me to her pieces are their strongly autobiographical nature influenced by Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele. 2007 was an important year for Tracey Emin since she was chosen as only the second British woman to have a solo exhibition at the Venice Biennale and she became a member of the Royal Academy. Four years later she was appointed Professor of Drawing, one of the first two female professors of art since the founding of the Academy in 1768.

Emin led an uninhibited early life with sex, drugs and alcohol and for the last number of years since the cancer, that almost killed her, she has focused her attention on her foundation in Margate, her home town. The foundation supports visual art and education through an art school and two residency programs, one long term for painters giving them time to develop their work and the shorter Victoria House residency for multi-disciplined artists.

In my sculpture about Tracey Emin, I have tried to reflect on various aspects of the work she produces to create a relevant portrait. I have continued my torn photo series by using two different photo fragments to create the carved glass parts of her face. The neon portion of the face is based loosely on a self-portrait drawing. The legs are laser cut painted steel based on another drawing with texts in words she uses to describe herself. Bold in public I believe she saw herself s a fragile person and so the “Self-Portrait as a Small Bird” in bronze a noble and solid material. The hands protect her sex and show her involvement with bronze a material that she referred to in 2013 as wholly unsuccessful and uncommercial. “No one is interested in them so it’s almost like my hobby”. She remains enthusiastic because “I’m good at it”.