‘I lay here for you’

 Tracey Emin is an art world figure who has always been very open about both her life and her art. She often fuses the personal and the political; this show is no exception. Those of you who follow her closely will know she has recently overcome cancer and undergone extensive surgery, brushing closely with death, but fortunately has recovered well. Despite these difficulties, Emin has continued to produce work. Her new exhibition at Jupiter Artland in Edinburgh reflects the hope she has for the future, and pays homage to the support and love she received during this time. Her first major show in Scotland since 2008, this is a real statement of who and where she is in life.

The unveiling and acquisition of a new large-scale bronze sculpture in the Jupiter woodlands is accompanied by an exhibition of paintings, sculptures, and prints. The title of the exhibition, ‘I lay here for you’, is the title of the large sculpture which sets the tone for the whole show. The sculpture is a 6 metre long bronze of an abstracted figure lying prone on the ground, the expression of which can be interpreted as either ecstasy or agony. While I photographed Emin with her new sculpture, she said, “I like how it looks like she could be masturbating”. Later, while hearing from her creative director Harry Weller, he commented on the significance of the work being in nature: “We always see the bronzes in the gallery space, and it’s nice actually, because when she is making them she always says she wants to have them outside in nature…she wants people to interact with them, to sit on them, to sit between the crotch, same with her sculpture in Oslo.  It’s about the human interaction”. The nature of the work being so permanent and robust is something that Emin enjoys, saying that it would take something like an earthquake for the piece to disappear. There is something magical about walking through the woodlands and catching a glimpse of this bronzed figure in the distance. Upon reaching it you are struck firstly by the scale of it, and secondly with how well it suits its surroundings. The bronze looks equally soft and impenetrable at the same time, a sense which is reflective of the multimedia process in which it is made.

This exhibition has long been in the pipeline, but has been delayed by COVID and her ill health. The sculpture, which is now a permanent addition to the site, is accompanied by two rooms of exhibitions, including a video work from 1998 that is in the Jupiter collection and one further small bronze. In the first exhibition space, ‘The Ballroom’, there are 6 new paintings, each discussing a different facet of her personality and experience. The most commanding piece in the room is the large-scale painting ‘WET’, painted in 2021, although like many of her works it has spent time in her archive lying unfinished before being brought to completion.  The piece is acrylic on canvas, measuring 152 x 182 cm. It is an abstract work that is made up of layers, starting with a rabbit skin glue priming, followed by marks in white, pink, and red. The scene depicts a female nude seen from below. If you look to the top of the work, you can see Emin’s jawline, denoting the figure as a self-portrait. As with much of her work the themes are deeply personal and often feature the female nude, self-portraits, and vulvas. These topics relate to the artist’s traumas of abortion and cancer, along with her ever open regard of sexuality.

There is a large painting to the right of this titled ‘I keep Bleeding’; her pain is palpable on the surface. The thick application of crimson red paint, surrounding a pained figure on the bed is a very different experience to the sex drawings seen later in the show.  The painting next to this ‘Sunrise’ gives an insight into her creative process. It depicts a female figure lying in bed with a male figure lying in the background, which originally started as a portrait of two people kissing, but she didn’t like it. The horizontal lines in the background give an insight to the previous, albeit brief life of the other painting.  Her process is one of time and layers, often painting a canvas over and looking at it from various angles until the drawing speaks to her; she will then paint into it until it surprises her. The titles of the pieces always come after; she never creates prescriptively. The other paintings in the space vary in size and subject matter, from scenes of her bedroom in her old London home ‘Empty Heart’, the final work she created in that space and is firmly not available for purchase, to darker scenes of loss and pain along with joyous scenes of love and passion. A little nugget of information that was shared by Harry Weller, Tracey’s assistant, is that there is a bust of Nefertiti in the painting of her room, which is a literal representation of a bust she owns, something that is more clearly visible in the monotypes. The titles of the works play an important role in reading the images, and indeed they should be read as part of the work. It is notable that the works are all in acrylic; she has not painted in oils since having an abortion, due to the smell of the painting making her feel sick.

Somewhat incognito in the ballroom gallery on the mantlepiece there is a small-scale plaster cast of a larger work she created in bronze in 2017. The larger version was called, ‘I held your heart’ and relates to the stone she married in the south of France. On this small-scale version, titled ‘Holding on to everything’ she has painted three vaginas onto the piece, and it relates to her recent surgery where sections of her vagina and womb had to be removed. This is something that is responded to throughout the show. Despite being one of the smallest pieces, this work is also one of the most powerful, with the idea of wanting to just hold onto every part of yourself - something that most people simply don’t have to consider.

The painting ‘The last moments with you’ relates to death. It was the only painting made in one sitting and was completed a few months ago, this is notable as most of her paintings are created, put in archive and then revisited. Next to this piece is a smaller work titled ‘I wanted you very much’. This painting has a much simpler appearance, and could be read to represent a penis, a praying figure, or even hands of a clock. The ballroom as an exhibition space is very grand and seeing Emin’s work above a warm parquet flooring and below richly detailed cornicing, it feels a decadent experience. Outside this space, in a neatly manicured garden is a dovecot, this plays host to a bronze sculpture of a lying figure, almost disintegrated, as if falling apart. This sculpture titled, ‘ Exactly how I feel right now’ was completed in 2014, and was chosen for the show by Harry who felt it accompanied the rest of the work well. If you did not know when the piece was made, it would never occur that it wasn’t made recently as it seems to relate so closely with a number of the works.

The second space is filled with monotypes and paintings and feels a lighter experience. She works closely with Counter Editions, a print publisher in Margate, run by her close friend Carl Freedman to produce the monotypes.  The total collection of the work numbers 20, although only 11 are seen here. The process to make these works started from a lithographic layer of colour and a bed as a background which she then worked onto with Indian ink to produce these monotypes. Each of these works features a title written on the front, and they all relate deeply to the piece they accompany.

Emin’s first show since recovering from her illness was down in Margate at Carl Freeman’s gallery, titled ‘A Journey to Death’. That exhibition runs concurrently with this one at Jupiter and can be seen as a precursor and accompaniment, charting her journey to recovery. Whereas her show in Margate is much darker in theme and palate, being entirely monochrome, this show offers a more positive outlook. Speaking to Harry Weller, he mentions that this show is about someone who helped her through those moments after surgery; for her this person was hope and optimism. The 11 works are set in the white space and can almost be read as cells of a comic strip. The repeated motif of the bed harks to old animator tables with the domestic scenes depicted within each relating to past few years of being stuck inside, whether through the Pandemic or her illness. The pieces are each accompanied by a title, handwritten in pencil by Emin, and they almost read as a short poem. ‘You just Kept Wanting me’, ‘I Know you Loved Me – I know because I Loved you too, ‘Because I’m so Fucking sexy. I was born sexy, And I will die sexy’…etc. They offer a way into the work and help with understanding what she is channeling. Notable here is that she has signed the work across two lines, something not seen before.

At the other end of this space is a large painting depicting a female nude from behind, it is titled ‘This is it’. This piece is unusual as it dates back to 2016, and feels a much softer, gentler version of her current work. A fun fact to hear from Harry Weller, is that hidden behind this work you can make out the word ‘Kisses’ with a number of x’s below. Emin always works onto works rather than discarding them, so many pieces might have multiples scenes beneath. While she does revisit paintings in the sense that she might start one, put in archive and then finish it, she never reworks a piece that has passed the point of completion.

Accompanying this work is a small piece titled ‘Forest of Love’, this is one of a series of vagina paintings she has recently created. Again these relate to her recent surgeries. This work is the only one not framed in the show, something done intentionally to as they did not want them to be restricted or constrained. There is a link between this painting and the bronze outside, both in the title and subject matter. Finally in this space are several of Tracey’s ‘Sex Drawings’. Completed in Gouache on paper they are all scenes relating to sex and affection. These works are similarly titled in pencil, offering parameters to read the subject. The final work here ‘Wouldn’t have it any other way’, depicts a coffin with text above that reads ‘you fuck my brains out every time’, the coffin here relates to the ‘Lovers in Coffins’ series that is found in Margate. There is some satisfaction having the last picture here relate to her other show.

Overall, this exhibition is a powerful one. Emin’s work is always personal, and her struggles, pain and suffering are at times heartbreaking to see. This show does have a light to it though. I think she is more determined now than ever to be producing the work she really wants to, and the allusion to the strength and hope she found in her relationships during the last few years is uplifting. The honesty that has always been present in her work means you are left feeling deeply for her, as the way she deals with themes of love, loss and pain can be felt in everyone who views her work.

The exhibition runs from the 29th May – 2nd October at Jupiter Artland.