“The words went round and round in my mind and my body, until I knew they were no longer my words but something that had been carved into my heart. And now my soul was crying.”
Tracey Emin. A name to add on to the list of confessional female artists who have been silenced and undermined by society simply because they are women.
Prominently known for her autobiographical works of art, ‘Everyone I Have Ever Slept With’ (1995), ‘My Bed’ (1998) and ‘A Fortnight of Tears’ (2018), Emin used photography and paint to depict the reality of being a woman in today’s world.
Despite the minimalism of her pieces, she still managed to capture the essence of her sorrow and transport it onto canvas and film. She was well known for expressing and exploring her crude mental suffering linked to concepts that are often misunderstood, such as grief, sexual assault, traumatic experiences of abortion and depression.
In 1998, Tracey’s life had fallen apart. Her relationship began to fall apart and she was slowly slipping into depression. As a result of this downward spiral, she wasn’t able to get out of bed. She started drinking, downing bottle after bottle of alcohol. The chemicals from her cigarettes intoxicated her. She was at her deepest point. Eventually, she climbed out of this ditch, embraced her feelings, and decided to expose the truth of what depression does to a person.
Empty bottles of vodka. Discarded cigarette packets. Dirty clothes and creased bed sheets. These were all displayed in her 1998 art installation, ‘My Bed’, which ignored society’s expectations of women.
In 1999, ‘My Bed’ was selected as a finalist for England’s most prominent award for contemporary Art: The Turner Prize. Art critics went ballistic. People called the installation hideous, filthy, self- absorbed. It attracted criticism and controversy. But this didn’t stop Tracey. She recovered from her mental downfall and regained her power, she continued expressing herself through abstract concepts.
If this wasn’t already enough for her, in 2020 she was diagnosed with bladder cancer. This had a detrimental effect on her mental and physical state. She was fighting for her life even though she barely had any life left in her.
“I never realized how much I wanted to live until I thought I was going to die.”
However, she managed to pull through. After a long and tedious surgery, the tumor was removed and she could now breathe a sigh of relief. But, a reminder stuck with her which then became a major disability; a urostomy bag which is a replacement for her bladder and urinary system.
Now 58 years old and having found happiness, Tracey Emin continues to create pieces of art which display a powerful message to all the tormentors in her life; “I am here. I’m alive.”
Nicole
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