mmm 45
Just earlier this summer her Turner Prize short-listed work My Bed went on the market for the first time since Charles Saatchi had purchased it for £150,000 back in 1999. It fetched double its estimated price with a collector paying a remarkable £2,2million. All of which is more remarkable for one who has such humble beginnings. Born in Croydon in 1963 – one of twins with her brother Paul – she entered an unconventional family set-up from the off. Her mother was English and of Romanichal – a form of Romani – descent. Her father a Turkish Cypriot. He was married to another woman, however, when Tracey was born and shared his time between two families. It was he, however, that owned the Hotel International in Margate which saw the family move to the Thanet seaside town. Her childhood was certainly not without its trauma. When the hotel faltered, her family were plunged not only into financial problems, but into relationship issues too. Her parents separating when Tracey was just nine-years-old.
At the age of 13, she later confided in a TV interview, she was raped. She explained: “This is a really contentious thing what I’m going to say. When I grew up in Margate it was par for the course – that’s what happened to a lot of girls. “A lot of girls had sex against their will and it wasn’t called rape, it was called ‘being broken into’ and you’d go to school and you’d say ‘Yeah, I was broken into last night’. “Some girls would be broken into as though it was a badge of honour and other girls would be broken into, like me, thinking – I didn’t want that to happen and it was against my will. It wasn’t a boyfriend but it was someone I knew and, because it was someone I knew, you felt you couldn’t say anything. “Despite the fact you didn’t mind going down an alley and being snogged, as far as the world was concerned you didn’t mind being raped.” Her artistic talent quickly engaged her and she attended the Medway College of Design in 1980, where she would study fashion for two years.