Art of Tracey Emin: A Contextual and Analytical Approach - Essay Example

?Art of Tracey Emin: A Contextual and Analytical Approach “Uhmm... It's not a person really. It was more a time, going to Maidstone College of Art, hanging around with Billy Childish, living by the River Medway.” This was the answer when Tracey Emin was asked in the Minky Manky show about the greatest inspiration behind her life and success. Tracey Emin is a contemporary English artist and an active part of Young British Artists. She is an artist who believes in creativity through autobiographical approach. Subjectivity is the main topic in almost all of her art forms. She expresses her personal experiences through several forms of contemporary art forms. She is an expert in various art forms including needlework, sculpture, drawing, video or installation, photography and painting as well. The uniqueness in her works that can be in any form lies in her independent nature to express with an autobiographical tone. What other artists never prefer to expose in public, Tracey does exactly the same. Tracey and Her Unique Practice as a Contemporary Artist: Tracey is the most controversial artist just because of her extreme personal and original art works. Autobiographical subject matter in her works of art is the place where she differs from other contemporary artists. She has confessed everything from her inmost life through sculptures, textiles, drawings, mono prints and several other expertise fields (Fortnum, R, 2007). Almost all her works tell about her autobiography. According to her this comes from a stream of consciousness, undoubtedly this is the basic source of art while creating it. Tracey’s practice is well known for its raw openness, immediacy and some extend sexually provocative attitude (The European Graduate School, web, N.D.). Such factors fascinate the viewer a lot. She is very confessional in her attitude through the art forms. She always prefers to show a working class attitude in her works of art that provokes British class system. She is the pioneer of all artists to establish writing as a form of visual art or visual art in the form of text (Fortnum, R, 2007). She deals with all kinds of truth in her life through her art. The truth can be wonderful and at the same time, she does not mind to present the awful facts of her life. She deals with extremely female autobiographical subject in her art. She represents “she” in all her art works and that is a concrete part of essentialism (Gale, M.B. & Gardner, V, 2004). Tracey is such an artist in the contemporary world of art who tells about the exploitation of her existence as a woman. Her art tells about the challenges of a woman affirming her female identity in her art forms. She makes the viewer feel her string existence through her art forms. Tracey’s form of art often defined in terms of sexual aggression coming out of her personal experiences. Almost of all her paintings delineate a life of sexual desire (Doyle, J, 2006). She often confesses that what she does is exactly what she thinks. This is the freedom of contemporary art. An artist is freed from any kind of boundaries. There is no obligation in the expression through art form. The basic aesthetics of contemporary art form is that nothing can stop the spontaneous urge of expression in terms of art. The tradition of past, restricted sectors of rules and regulation are avoided in the concept of contemporary art form and Tracey is a perfect contemporary artist representing her own thoughts and spontaneity on canvas or paper or may in some other formats. A spirit of experimentation is the basis of contemporary art and Tracey is just the revolutionary as a contemporary artist. Modern art is born out of a considerable revision of the conventional definition of art form with the concept of something unique (Meecham, P & Sheldon J, 2000). Tracey is doing nothing rather implementing her own thoughts through a revolutionary method. Her struggling life from the childhood makes her tell the pathetic story in a spontaneous approach through modern art. Several rejections in terms of rejection, incest, rape, sex with strangers makes her inspire to express through the forms of contemporary art. Modern art is a process of representing own thoughts without maintain any such norms as designed in the conventional manner. Expressionism is an important part of contemporary art. This is method of presenting the world solely from a subjective point of view. Even it gives the artist to distort the truth to provoke additional effects. This is where Tracey excels in her art form. She is an ideal expressionist telling the story of her own life while confronting with reality. Even expressionism permits to confront with memories and here also Tracey is an expert. Criticism can arise regarding her way of expression but controversy is an indispensable part of contemporary art form. Tracey has faced a lot in her life and such incidents inspire her to tell her own story through her spontaneity in the creation of art. Installation is a basic tool in terms of expressionism and Tracey does her major work in this mode. She is such an expressionist in her own terms that she has gone so far in making the mask of her own face and setting it in a frame of glass in such a way that it is a death mask. This is a fact that such a work of art is an expression of morbidity (Acton, M, 2004). All her works are the ideal examples of auto biological expression. This cannot be denied that Tracey has tried to represent the agony of many women in the post-feminist era. Her works deal with several anxieties of contemporary women. Self picturing comes back again and again in Tracey’s work of art. She stands among a few artists who dare to express the intimate part of their lives in details with an extremely powerful and in a very honest manner through the form of art. Violent sex, motherhood, abortion, hometown, lack of schooling, sexual past are some usual subjects in her works of art and these are repeated again and again. Her extreme sensual autobiographical nature gives an arguable contribution in the anti-intellectualism. She is very spontaneous in her own and this spontaneous brings the aesthetics to her works of art, whatever the form may be. Even her videos are often attacked as bad sex aesthetics but such comments are beyond any considerations. Such critics actually do not understand her works at all. The arguments start with the concept of spontaneity. Such critics are not capable enough to consider it as an inspiration of art. This is the fact for which they do not acknowledge the aesthetics of Tracey’s art. Tracey’s Contribution in the World of Contemporary Art with Her Best Works: Any discussion of an artist can never be concluded without mentioning best works. Tracey is not an exception in this fact and without mentioning some of her well known works of art; this paper can never have a fair conclusion. Tracey excels in several forms of contemporary art including needlework, sculpture, drawing, video or installation, photography, writing, film making and painting as well. Two among the rest of her works are most famous and they can be considered in the construction of Tracey’s identity in front of the world of contemporary art. Let’s discuss about them and justify why they are considered as the major works of this contemporary artist. The Piece Everyone I Have Ever Slept With And My Bed Make Her Celebrity: The needlework of Tracey called “the piece Everyone I Have Ever Slept With” is another feather to her fame. This is among her early works and is the first one to bring her fame. Commonly it is known as “The Tent” and this is appliqued with the names of everyone with whom she has slept. These not only included her sexual partners but at the same time, relatives with who she has slept as a child, drinking partners, her twin brother and also her aborted children. It contains names of one hundred and two people closely related with the artist. Just because of its name, often, this piece of work is misinterpreted but this is not only related with the artist’s sexual aggression for the partners. Among rest, “My Bed” has brought to the door of the Turner prize. This is a wonderful piece of installation exhibiting her unmade bed with its yellow strained sheets. The floor surroundings it had items of her use like used condoms, a pair of knickers with menstrual period strains, empty cigarette packets along with other functionaries for everybody use. This is a piece of installation of a base that is supported by a mattress holding rumple sheets, pillows. Everything included contraceptives, underwear, vodka bottles are cluttered alongside. The artist confesses that this was her bed. It was presented exactly in the same way as it had been. She had stayed in such condition for a couple of days while feeling suicidal because of relationship difficulties. Undoubtedly this is an ultimate creation of expressionism. This is subjective enough to express the mental turmoil of artist’s perspective, may be someone else personifies such a situation. This is a form of expressionism in contemporary art genre. It shows the relationship between a woman and a specific part of home decor. This form of expression can be very voluptuous and disturbing. Just like an expressionist, Tracey tries to provoke its viewers through emotion not in terms of physical reality. This is really shocking in its treatment and notorious also. Art Creates An Artist Or An Artist Creates An Art: Whatever the result may be, but this has made Tracey a celebrity with all the controversies and treatment from several critics but this is an expression coming out of spontaneity. This is an expression of autobiographical subjectivity at its peak. This is the forte of Tracey and she truly excels in this kind of representation. There was a considerable amount of media hike related with this piece of art. This can be said that this work of art has made an “artist” from severe controversy. A question can be raised that art creates an artist or an artist creates an art. “My bed” is such a piece of art that brings utmost identification to the artist or may be the creator Tracey. Undoubtedly, this is the creation of the artist but through this work of art the world came to know more about the artist. Artist Tracey got a new birth with this form of art, whatever the process may be. This piece of art expresses the sluttish personality of the creator but this is a unique piece of confessional art (The European Graduate School, web, N.D.). The mise-en-scene with its unusual textile and neon effect with the voice over of the artist accompanied by a wandered camera felicitates all elisions. “My bed” is an expression of women’s tortured emotions. Constructed with the aesthetics of dirt and disgust, this is not only the tale of a “bad girl”. The success of excess makes Tracey famous. Even her “the piece Everyone I Have Ever Slept With” is also important part of her fame. Often this is taken as a piece of euphemism of the artist for her sexual partners that reflects again the notion of “bad girl”. Somehow Tracey loves to play with her identity bringing the intimate secrets of her life in public. Each and every time, she brings her identity in such a manner that only highlights the “negative” factor to the so called intellectual class-people. Deconstruction of her identity is a passion that reflects almost every tale of her art forms. To conclude the discussion, Tracey’s world of art is confided within her own hopes, failures, success and humiliations including both tragic and humour. This is the way by which she is capable enough to connect with the viewers. Her works of art engage the viewers with an unrestricted exploration of universal emotions. Communication is the other part of the definition of contemporary art. Actually, the conventional tone of art faced the revolution just because it failed to connect with the viewers and contemporary art forms take its birth at this point. The conventional method of creating art avoids the communication but Tracey maintains this freedom and attachment of contemporary art with an extreme level of presentation of subjectivity, her works of art reveals the truth of the actual world and it’s certain factors that are known but not admitted. Freedom of using art forms is another forte of her expertise as a contemporary artist. She prefers to deconstruct her own celebrity status by exposing the core facts of her life. Reference: 1. Fortnum, R, 2007 (page 55), Contemporary British women artists: in their own words, retrieved on May 03 2011 from http://books.google.com/books?id=0SsN0M8zP7cC&pg=PA55&dq=Tracey+Emin&hl=en&ei=MZS_Ten3EMmdgQelxvnqBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Tracey%20Emin&f=false 2. Web, Tracey Emin-Biography, retrieved on May 03 2011 from http://www.egs.edu/faculty/tracey-emin/biography/ 3. Gale, M.B. & Gardner, V, 2004 ( page 194), Auto/biography and identity: women, theatre and performance, retrieved on May 03 2011 from http://books.google.com/books?id=cZNnUYc4_-kC&pg=PA194&dq=Tracey+Emin&hl=en&ei=cbC_TbmtGcXpgQfxscHwBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCsQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=Tracey%20Emin&f=false 4. Doyle, J, 2006 (page 105), Sex objects: art and dialectics of desire, retrieved on May 03 2011 from http://books.google.com/books?id=gunxnePnG0AC&pg=PA97&dq=Tracey+Emin&hl=en&ei=cbC_TbmtGcXpgQfxscHwBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBzgK#v=onepage&q=Tracey%20Emin&f=false 5. Meecham, P & Sheldon J, 2000, (page xvii), Modern art: a critical introduction, retrieved on May 03 2011 from http://books.google.com/books?id=TKhKbOp-W0cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=modern+art&hl=en&ei=xbi_TezuOYXagQeO793eBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CG8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false 6. Acton, M, 2004, (page 121), Learning to look at modern art, retrieved on May 03 2011 from http://books.google.com/books?id=1XiHk50tHRkC&pg=PA121&dq=tracey+Emin+and+modern+art&hl=en&ei=bsS_Tdxz05q3B57o7LAF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&sqi=2&ved=0CHUQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q&f=false 7. Web, "TRACEY EMIN'S 'MY BED'," DEBORAH CHERRY SHARP, retrieved on May 03 2011 from http://www.egs.edu/faculty/tracey-emin/articles/tracey-emins-my-bed/ Read More