Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

Tracey Emin on The Bed

Page: 1(2)

16:31 / 08.04.04

Well I did actually say it was " an obvious gag, " you know, ie, a bad joke, one clearly not meant to be taken as a serious comment on the piece in question. At least, I don't honestly know how I'd've made that more obvious.

" Do try and retain your sense of humour. "

Anyway, on the subject of work - TE seems to have put in roughly as much thought or effort into My Bed as your average horny teen trying rearrange his or her room on the basis that someone's coming back, maybe, a bit later on. You know, getting the books right, arranging the posters, hiding the tissues, etc. Superficially, the intended effect is maybe the opposite - she's showing herself in a BAD light, gosh - but that's about the level of thought we'd appear to be dealing with. And you could proably argue, at least I would anyway, that your average horny teen's bedroom would say as much if not more about human sexuality, if someone decided to put it on show.

23:49 / 08.04.04

No, no, no-no-no.

I am absolutely or, rather, mostly, not an authority on art. However, I am currently working alongside people who make art and have read some of their own (unpublished) explications of their work. Trust me. The idea that these people are in some way ripping you off is contradictory with my experience and comes, I think, from the tabloids.

If you don't like TE's work, there is plenty of other art to look at. Shuffle off up to the Crafts Council if you want to see formal stuff.

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:46 / 10.04.04

Actually, there's been an exhibit called "Boys who Sew" at the Jerwood lately, which might have some interesting tie-ins to this question of women's art and its relationship to craft...

Frankie, if the poetry thread in the Creation is anytihng to go by, I can see we are going to be spending a lot of time explaining things to you, usually in the face of you being arrogant, impolite and a bit light on thought. I am hopeful that with a bit of thought you might be able to help keep this to a minimum.

For example, Frankie, along with his suggestion that Emin's My Bed, being Emin's bed, is a direct representation of her ability to do the housework (a noose was added to some of the displays, suggesting that the silly slut hadn't tidied since her last suicide attempt), and that the piece was called "Bed" (see above), tells Linus that Emin is forcing him to ask these questions about women's art, which seems not to take into account her lengthy collection of quilts, embroideries and other repositionings of "women's crafts" into the white cube of the gallery...

That is, Frankie has suggested that Emin's My Bed is actually her bed, and thus a reflection of her facility with the housework. This is placed in a separate clause to the other contentions described, because, although telling about Frankie's attitude to Emin as a woman and an artist, it was not intended to be taken seriously. That is, it is deliberately factually incorrect. He has also stated two other things, which are both incorrect (or more correctly ill-informed) but which he has presented as fact. These are separated clausally from the housework assertion because, while also not true, they have been represented by Frankie as serious, and thus correct, rather than comic.

My sense of humour is fine, thank you, likewise my understanding of English. Speaking of which, I'd consider trying not to use quotation marks unless you are actually quoting something, were I you. We are clever enough to see when you are trying to ape a previous phrasing, even when you don't make a very good job of it ("do try to", not "do try and").

08:58 / 10.04.04

Right. Well I'll get my coat...

21:02 / 10.04.04

Well, or possibly not, H.

It's an odd situation, I suppose, doing these talks on the internet, roughly halfway between phoning a friend and being out there somewhere in the public eye, in whatever forum, so the appropriate etiquette seems fairly open to question.

But I'm not at all sure why you seem so upset.

Specifically -

" I can see we are going to spend a lot of time explaining things to you. "

You can probably imagine just how much I'm looking forward to that.

Secondly, etc.

My Bed by Tracey Emin, or Bed by Tracey Emin - I can't really see all that much of a distinction. The implication, I'd've thought, though I'm arrogant and so on, thoughtless and crap, as well as an undercover raving misogynist, is that the thing in question is supposed to be an accurate-ish representation of well, her bed. The state of her flat, though I'm sure it's lovely, or not, isn't one of those things that keeps me up late at night.

Thirdly, " Along with his suggestion that Emin's My Bed, being Emin's bed, is a direct reflection of her ability to do the housework. "

I'm kind of appalled that you'd make that statement. i mean fine, I suppose, if you're under the impresion that I'm some sort of horror, but, uh... Oh well.

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:31 / 11.04.04

And once again:

Hm. Well resisting the obvious gag about housework here ( ie she doesn't seem to have done any... okay I couldn't resist, )

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:36 / 11.04.04

But seriously...

Here's the thing. We get that you think that there is no difference between "My Bed" and "Bed". We get also that you do not think that Emin could possibly have intended to communicate anything other than an accurate representation of the bed she sleeps in, because otherwise you have to start crediting Emin with some actual artistic vision or intent or even - horribile dictu - ability. For your thesis - that the work required no imagination, and the titling likewise - to hold up, you *have* to maintain these beliefs.

Unfortunately, these beliefs are factually incorrect, since there is a difference between "Bed" and "My Bed" (not least that you did not know the title of the work the unimaginative titling of which you were decrying). Emin has raised questions about the relationship of art and women's craft in other works. So... we are now stuck in a thread which is basically talking about your misapprehensions, in order hopefully eventually to correct them and continue a discussion about Traey Emin, rather than actually having a discussion about Tracey Emin. And I thought the Stuckists were the ones likely to rot this thread...

So, if you don't like the work, then great. Explain why not. But don't cut up rough when your factual errors are corrected, or when the critical position you have adopted based on these factual errors are questioned, nor insist that the difference between untruth and truth is irrelevant. This is just going to lead to threadrot.

So, no, I'm not upset. I would, however, like this thread to discuss Tracey Emin, Conceptual Art, art stars, the marketing of art &c. without having to stop every two posts and indulge in a long battle with you about whether Damien Hirst's "Hymn" was in fact not intended to be a monumental representation of a child's anatomy toy, but is rather a deeply incompetent attempt to portray a piece of paper with "Glorious things of thee are spoken, Sion city of our God" written on it.

15:23 / 12.04.04

" You do not think that Emin could possibly have intended to communicate anything other than an accurate representation of the bed she sleeps in. "

Well not necessarily - It's just that personally anyway, that was the effect. As such, the statement My Bed ( and yeah fair enough, I should have checked the title, sorry about that, ) appeared to be making seemed a lot more to do with Emin's position as a media figure, the created public persona that seems as much the main point of her work as the objects themselves, rather than any of the broader questions mentioned above. While I completely accept that some of her other stuff may well be centred round these themes ( I wouldn't know, I haven't seen it, ) surely My Bed, presented as it was, at least when I saw it, as a stand-alone piece in a collection of exhibits by other artists, was there to stand or fall on it's own merits, rather than as part of a body of work ? I'd have thought so anyway. And as such it just looked to me like a fairly uninteresting bit of narcissism, of which the controversy she must have known the bed would cause seemed a fairly key element. Which is not to say, either, that I think she's untalented ( she writes well, for example, ) just that from where I was, looking at the thing, what talent she has seemed pretty well hidden.

Basically, remove the Emin brand name and " It's just a bed " still looks to me like as reasonable a response as any other.

But ok, in future, will try to adopt a more considered tone.

08:54 / 17.04.07

I look at Tracy Emins bed and think "what a filthy skank". I dont see how dirty stained knickers, mucky bed sheets, fag ends and condoms can be called art. Its nothing mre than a fucking filthy mess.

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:39 / 17.04.07

Well, gg, why not start by reading this thread? Then, maybe, going back and thinking about some of the issues raised? Then, just possibly, coming back to us.

16:22 / 17.04.07

A link to "My Bed" by Tracy Emin.

Now, to read the thread and some bios on Emin. It is hard to form an proper opinion on her work, just yet. Although, I think I have come up with a gut reaction.

Glenn Close But No Cigar

16:40 / 17.04.07

I'm really rather saddened by guitargirl's comment:

I dont see how dirty stained knickers, mucky bed sheets, fag ends and condoms can be called art. Its nothing mre than a fucking filthy mess.

Seriously, is this battle one that still needs to be fought? Marcel Duchamp’s upturned pissoir ‘Fountain’ (1917), a pioneering piece of conceptual art, was first exhibited when Russia still had a Czar, condoms were still made out of goats’ guts, and women in the Uk didn't even have the fucking vote. Then, understandably, ‘Fountain’ caused a fair bit of fuss among audiences used to ‘pretty pictures’, but nowadays, when we can safely identify it as perhaps the most influential artwork of the 20th century (many of the works in Tate Modern wouldn’t exist without it), claiming that one of its descendents is ‘not proper art’ is like claiming that children should be sewn into their underwear for the winter. How many of your other opinions date from WWI, guitargirl?

Page: 1(2)