Presentation on My Chosen Artist

Today I gave a presentation to my peers on my chosen artist which as Tracey Emin who belongs to the conceptual art movement. In general my presentation went well and I have enjoyed this first brief, despite the nerves for presenting for the first time! Here I will give a brief summary of my presentation.
Tracey Emin is a English artist from Turkish origin in which childhood traumas provide her with the fuel for her work. Tracey also centers her work around her childhood and sexual encounters in which takes the form of mono prints, neon's, applique, films, embroideries, and letters.

I believe before you try to understand Emins work you must understand the artist and subsequently I included detail about Tracey's childhood.

Tracey and twin brother Paul where born in Croydon before moving back to the Greek speaking village of Envar. They then after persuasion from family and friends living within the village they moved to Margate where they invested in six guest houses knocking them together to form the "Hotel International". This was the inspiration for her first applique subsequently named - Hotel International.

The situation soon changed Tracy's father became bankrupt and they where forced to squat in a small staff cottage behind the hotel whilst Tracey's mother struggled to make ends meet working as a waitress in a nightclub. After leaving a disco in 1976 Tracey was raped in an alleyway. she was thirteen at the time and recalls this experience in detail in Exploration of the Soul which compromises  framed sheets of blue A4 notepaper on which Emin has written a poetic text recounting significant moments in her life up until the age of thirteen. From here her life only became more dysfunctional her mother gave up and moved to London leaving Tracey alone in the house. She describes as her "shagging years" in which she would go out to the pub eat fish and chips and then have sex because it felt good and was free.

Work which I found most interesting was

- Everyone I ever Slept with 1995

This featured a range of names stitched to the interior lining of the tent ranging from, lovers, family, friends and two aborted foetuses. Tracey liked the idea that people would come out of the tent thinking about who they had shared intimacy with, and they took this experience away with them.

Exorcism of the Last painting I ever Made 1996

 

Th     This is an installation that was produced in 1998, it compromised a wooden bed surrounded in dirty clutter such as empty bottles, old newspapers and dirty laundry. The significance behind this has been described by Tracey as she could have died in there and that's how people would have found her and this took her to another place outside of her.

My Bed 1998 

This was an installation produced in 1998 which showcased a wooden bed along with dirty laundry, used condoms, old newspapers, cigarette packets, pills and other dirty clutter. The significance behind this is that Tracey after a night out woke up to get a drink and when walking back into her room where the bed was she looked at it and thought "Oh my god, I could have died there and that's how people would have found me". This also allowed her to interact with the viewer and they could see her intimacy, by sharing her most personal space it showed people she was insecure and imperfect like everyone else.

My view upon Emins work is one that I beleive you have to understand Tracey, if you simply just look at her work without no understanding or context you cannot appreciate it in the same way. Her work is very individual and personal, she shares her most intimate details and traumatic experiences with the viewer in order to portray the meaning behind the work.