Tracy Emin - A Second Life

A Second Life by Tracy Emin

at Tate Modern.

I have to start by saying that I am not doing this exhibition justice in this post. We went to Tate Modern to see Nigerian Modernism and Theatre Picasso, and thought we would have a look at the Tracy Emin exhibition. I knew I would not be impressed by it, and my fears were confirmed. I was basically bored. This, of course, is not the first exhibition I have been to that I have found boring, or not to my taste, but usually, if that is the case, I just don't blog about it. In Emin's case however, given how central she is to contemporary art in this country, I have decided to do a post. I have chosen a minimal number of exhibits just so that I have a reminder.

The second thing I would like to say about the exhibition is that it was packed - absolutely bursting with people. The room where they were showing a film about Emin was so full, you could not go through it. Nigerian Modernism had an average kind of crowd, and Theatre Picasso had a lot of people. But, this was absolutely bursting. I knew Emin was a popular artist, but this was incredible. 

My Major Retrospective II, 1982-1992, 2008, (180 photographs, canvas, card, wooden shelves, ink)

These tiny photographs, mounted on stitched fabric, document Emin's art school paintings. After an abortion in 1990, and experiencing what she has described as her 'emotional suicide', she destroyed the originals.

looking closer

looking closer

My Future, 1993, (passport, human tooth, ink on paper)

There's a Lot of Money in Chairs, 1994, (appliqued armchair)

'It's not what you inherit, it's what you do with your inheritance. I inherited my great-gramdnother's armchair. My nan said to me 'there's a lot of money in chairs' - she meaent people stuffed money in chairs, not that the chair is money, but I took it like 'yeah, it's my inheritance, what do I do with it?' So what I decided to do was make it more than it is. I decorated it with my life story...

I wrote the book Exploration of the Soul, went around America, with the chair and book, doing readings to American people...'

I Needed You to Love Me, 2023, (acrylic on canvas)

Rape, 2018, (acrylic on canvas)

Trinity Hill, 2019, (acrylic on canvas)

You Heard me Scream, 2022, (acrylic on canvas)

I Never Asked to Fall in Love - You Made me Feel like This, 2018, (acrylic on canvas)

My Bed, 1998

looking closer

You Kept it Coming, 2019, (acrylic on canvas)

The End of Love, 2016, (acrylic on paper)

Not Fuckable, 2024, (acrylic on canvas)

And So it Felt Like This, 2018, (acrylic on paper)

You Should Have Saved Me, 2023, (acrylic on canvas)

The Crucifixion, 2022, (acrylic on canvas)