Louise Bourgeois in 2009 Tracey Emin, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, 1995
Born In 1963, tracey emin was brought up in the seaside town of Margate, Kent. She was abused from the age of eight and, after being raped at thirteen, became promiscuous. the depression that followed led to attempted suicide, but through her work, she has found ways of exorcising the pain; rage is converted into raw energy and self-pity into an unflinching appetite for self-exploration. In drawings, paintings, videos, sculptures, appliquéd blankets and neon signs, she continually revisits childhood traumas. She ruthlessly mines this resource, systematically probing the disappointment, fear and loneliness felt so keenly as a child, while also celebrating her adult sexuality and the euphoria of new love. one of the generation know asYBAs (Young British Artists), emin has often been dubbed the bad girl of British art. her most famous sculpture, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-95 was destroyed in a fire. the walls of an igloo-shaped tent were appliquéd with the names of everyone she had shared a bed with since birth, including her twin brother and the fetuses that briefly lodged in her own womb. A makeshift temple to intimacy, it was a poignant testimony to the ease with which relationships are broken. In 1999 emin was nominated for the turner prize and exhibited an unmade bed surrounded by the detritus of sex, drink and sickness; in 2007 she became a
louise Bourgeois in 2009: photo Alex Van gelder; emin: © tracey emin. All rights reserved, dACS 2010; the artist in 1946: photo louise Bourgeois Archive
«Louise bourgeois’ stature has changed the potentiaL for women coming after her» tracey emin
member of the royal Academy and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, showing paintings of the female nude. I spoke to her on the phone in Australia, where she is escaping the winter cold. Could she recall her first encounter with a work by louise Bourgeois? ‘I remember seeing an exhibition of her prints, which I loved, and thinking she was my age,’ emin replies. ‘But it wasn’t until I saw her textile work that I felt any connection; it was like finding a kindred spirit. her drawings are like mental maps; they come from a similar world to mine, from another place – the mind or the memory – and we’re dealing with similar subject matter, anger and the internalization of it. ‘the impact she has had on the world has been slow in coming; she kept going until, finally, her work filtered through to everyone’s psyche and now she is one of the most seminal artists ever. She is really inspiring as an example of what a successful artist should be. Most people’s work goes downhill after they’ve peaked and become famous, but hers has gone up, not down; there’s no sense of a falling away. Its like sex; men just come once, but women keep on coming!’ what qualities does she admire in her? ‘I like the way she repeats and repeats and is not ashamed of arriving at a problem she can’t solve. Because she’s trying to work things out for her own sake, she doesn’t care if people say “we’ve seen that before”. her work is quite obsessive, but I think it’s really honest; there’s a genuineness about it.’ has she ever met Bourgeois? ‘I met her in new York about two months ago and she told me off for not coming before. She has invited me to collaborate on a series of prints of a woman in various stages of pregnancy. It’s a powerful subject for me at the moment, because I’ve just had major surgery to remove scar tissue from my ovaries and womb. I’m too old to have a child with my own eggs; but it’s all over now, anyway. I’ve just got to get well and fit; I’m lucky I’ve got my art.’ how would she describe Bourgeois’ legacy? ‘her stature has changed the potential for women coming after her. we’ve had no women who compare with, say, picasso and Matisse, but now we can cite her as an example. the art world is still extremely sexist; for women it’s still difficult. I was oblivious to it when I was younger, but now I’ve got older I see it more clearly. I was powered by my sexual drive; it was what got me out of bed in the morning. But what powers a 98-yearold? her career is a brilliant example of the fact that it doesn’t have to stop, but to come from a different place. You have to recreate, redefine and rethink. ‘when I have a creative block and feel low, I think about my visit to her house. She put these bright cerise drawings on the floor and it was magical. I thought, “She is so prolific, imaginative and inventive; if she can achieve that at her age, I can kick myself into doing some work.” I’ve definitely got a lifetime’s work in me, because it’s getting more intense, more streamlined and more itself. when I was in Venice I had a vision of myself at eighty. I thought, “I’ll be making art for another forty years like louise Bourgeois, so just get through this. there’s plenty of time”.’
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