Hello Blog,
Today (the day you are probably reading this) I will be presenting on Tracey Emin and her work. Although Emin was not listed among the installation artists from the assignment sheet, over the duration of my presentation I will argue that much of her work can be considered installation art nonetheless. To do this, I am referencing Anne Ring Petersen’s parameters to define installation art, which are as follows:
I . Installations activate space and context.
II. Installations stretch the work in time, whereby its character
becomes that of situation and process.
Ill. Installations have a phenomenological focus on the viewer's
bodily and subjective experience, and on the temporal
aspects of reception.
Tracey Emin’s sculptures, monoprints, paintings, drawings, video art, and particularly her readymade piece, “My Bed,” do all of these things. Emin’s work is autobiographical, inviting the viewer to experience the pains and joys of her life as a direct witness. Yxta Maya Murray argues that the artwork emulates the environment of a court trial, with her monoprints acting as evidence, her videos as statements, and the viewers as witnesses.
Although Emin has had a successful art career, her work has more often been the subject of tabloids than academic writing. This is largely due to its honest, confronting nature. It was easier for news publications to write inflammatory stories about her and her work than to think deeply about it. This, to me, feels so absurd since I’ve been told my whole life that good art should make you uncomfortable, but whatever.
Emin likely wouldn’t consider herself a part of the installations movement. It’s been said that she doesn’t consider her work to be feminist. However, I believe that it is worth examining the work through this lens as a way of engaging with it more deeply.
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