About the Work
This embroidered work by Tracey Emin has an abstracted and sketchy quality that makes it difficult to tell what is happening. There appear to be two figures, one huddled on a bed and the other standing. The words embroidered below, "It just wouldn't go away so I left," make the image seem ominous and disquieting. The very sketchiness of the style, which looks like pencil from a distance, belies the time and deliberation it must have taken Emin to embroider the image with thread. This deliberation heightens the impression that the image captured is one of a moment—whether a dream, a memory, or a nightmare—that demanded of Emin precise and painstaking documentation.
Emin says, “Drawing is about the line. Through my embroideries, the line I draw is accentuated and extreme, which complements the way that I think. I'm on a constant search for clarity."
About the Artist
Tracey Emin is a notable and prolific British artist recognized for her place in the Young British Artists Movement of the 1990s, and in particular for her provocative and controversial works such as Everyone I have ever slept with 1963-1995 and My Bed, which was on display at London's Tate Modern gallery as part of her nomination for a Turner Prize in 1999.
As illustrated in these works and others, Tracey Emin explores very personal and sometimes turbulent childhood experiences and sexual history in her art which is often described as confessional. These sources are reflected very literally, creating strikingly autobiographical pieces, the titles of which convey exactly what the viewer sees without veiling the works in metaphor or symbolism. She works in a wide variety of media including neon lighting, needle point, and photography.
Offered in partnership with:
