Love is whatever you want it to be - Tracey Emin

DATE: 25th May 2011

LOCATION: Hayward Gallery, London

EXHIBITION: Love is whatever you want it to be – Tracey Emin

Don’t care what the critics say – I just can’t help liking Mad Tracey from Margate

You buy your ticket and are ushered into ‘Room 1’ of the Hayward where you are confronted with ‘Knowing my enemy’ – Emin’s 2002 wooden sculpture piece of a hut on higgledy-piggledy wooden pier…a perfect ‘space filler’ in what would have been a tricky room to curate, however, not a favourite piece for me – Emin’s work is all about her ‘self’ and is generally more small, personal and intimate – this large scale piece feels ‘alien’ to her – disassociated in some way. But then you turn and a facing two rows of her ‘blankets’. I’ve not seen these before (only in photo’s) and was amazed at the detail in them – not just appliquéd letters but small notes and letters are also on them (photography just doesn’t pick this up) feeding the frenzied mish mash of writing. My favourite one “I do not expect’ 2002 – goes: I do not expect to be a Mother but I do expect to die alone…(The Guardian’s art critic Laura Cummings implied this was melodramatic and self pitying but I it speaks volumes – It may be driven from a ‘self-pity’ but as I know only too well, it will also very likely be extremely prophetic – I think only a single & childless woman could read this and fully appreciate the ‘self-awareness’ and acceptance of long term ‘absence’ that comes with childlessness (& being single – Love (and the loss of it) long being linked to Emin’s work).
This all precedes the ‘Neon’ room – most of which I’ve seen before (other exhibitions & Frieze Art Fairs etc), but they still pack a punch.
There are also a couple of film installations – briefly watched Emin running around in a wedding dress with money pinned to it, to the tune of ‘The good, the bad and the ugly’… I presume hunting for the groom (money on dress suggests the marriage has already taken place…therefore, she has ‘lost’ her love already). There is another room with her ‘chair’ and other ‘Friends n Family’ bits of memorabilia – which the ‘room map’ suggests you take your time over – alas, I was knackered and running out of time so didn’t but I don’t feel like I missed out on anything!
Emin’s drawings still continue to inspire and be something I aspire to do…whether they be ‘traditional’ drawings in pencil, monoprints, embroidery, all are well executed, but it was her paintings (which I’ve never seen before) which were exquisite. Small, at about approx. 20 x 30 cms (ish), they are subtle and delicate, less ‘scratchy’ and ‘hard’ like the drawings, yet the subject matter remains identical (images of female masturbation), and in amongst these little gems, a small painting of what is both a praying figure but also a phallus titled “Praying for penis”, juxtaposes nicely – a quick reminder that while ‘self-love’ will do, a man would be preferable! But I LOVED these paintings – a hint of Egon Schiele maybe with a touch of Toulouse Lautrec, but still unmistakenly Emin, these were quite possibly my favourite things in the exhibition.
The ‘White Room’ contained..well…white pieces most of which I have seen previously in the White cube exhibition a few years ago and this lead to sculptural works on the terrace – Mother, Father, Children – was ok (again, I feel I struggle with Emin’s ‘larger’ sculptures…and this was underlined when I went out to the 2nd terrace were at first there appears to be nothing out there…but look harder and you find a child’s abandoned shoe, a small pink sock, and a tiny toy teddy bear all cast in bronze. Many people walked straight out saying it was empty (I actually told a couple what to look for as they came out saying there was nothing, but they didn’t venture back out again to see?) – I may have been slightly more aware of what to look for as these pieces had been used for the Folkestone Triennial in 2008.
Once again, Hayward Gallery has pulled off another great exhibition – despite the ‘buggy brigade’ that appeared to be visiting the same time as me…which I found curious and a little bit amusing given some/most of Emin’s subject matter (childlessness/abortion)…however, having visited Tate Modern’s Miro exhibition earlier in the day, where there was loads of ‘mature’ couples , Emin’s was mainly filled with women. The few men at this exhibition had clearly been dragged there by girlfriends etc and appeared to have little real interest in what was on show…except one solitary ‘suited n booted’ gentleman who was looking a monoprint with text along the lines of ‘When everything is all fucked up’ and quietly laughing…