Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin

My Bed

1998

http://blogs.elpais.com/.a/6a00d8341bfb1653ef01a73dce9fa5970d-pi

Emin is a storyteller and displays that in her artwork, as she engages the viewer with her honest exploration of universal emotions. Her artwork has been described as ‘confessional’, which you can tell, by her statements and by her work, which shows and tells explicit details of her life, brutal honesty. She has an ability to merge her life and work together, which establishes intimacy with the viewer.

‘My Bed’ is Emins actual bed, with ‘all its embarrassing glory.’ It displays empty alcohol bottles, cigarette butts, stained sheets, worn underwear and ‘the bloody aftermath of a nervous breakdown.’

‘By presenting art, Emin shares her most personal space, revealing she is as insecure and imperfect as the rest of the world.’

http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/tracey_emin_my_bed.htm

Tracey Emin has been one of my favourite artists for a long time and when thinking of the idea of traces of traces her 'My Bed' artwork definitely registers in my mind as her 'traces.'
It is such a personal piece of art and again has that mystery feeling to it, because it doesn't have her inside the bed or any obvious things like that. There has been many events in the installation before it came to be an artwork at Tate. It feels like it has been really lived in through the rubbish and untidiness of it. It has traces of late nights, rough days and normal days and nights which sparked ideas of how i live and how i leave traces around my own enviroment.. such as after a big night i might not make my bed in the morning or leave my dishes out leaving ideas of laziness, or traces of routine such as making my bed every weekday...etc