Everyone I Have Ever Slept With (1963-1995). Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin’s iconic tent applique chronicles every person she has shared her bed with.  The list of 102 names includes lovers, her grandmother and two aborted fetuses. 

The piece was first shown in an exhibit called Minky Manky at the South London Gallery in 1995. Emin, then a lesser-known artist, was featured in the show alongside Damien Hirst, Gilbert and George and Sarah Lucas. Emin’s piece was considered the highlight of the show. 

Says Emin: “At that time Sarah (Lucas) was quite famous, but I wasn’t at all. Carl (Freedman, her former lover) said to me that I should make some big work as he thought the small-scale stuff I was doing at the time wouldn’t stand up well. I was furious. Making that work was my way at getting back at him. One review was really funny, the journalist had written something like ‘She’s slept with everyone – even the curator’!”

(F/lthyGorgeousTh/ngs)

September 23, 2009, 1:57am