The Haberdashery of Imaginary Art: Tracey Emin

Monday 12 September 2022

#136: "For every ounce of light, there is darkness"

Oil on canvas.

The canvas is taken up with a portrait of the subject’s head and shoulders. Upon their forehead is painted a scene: A candle lighting up an otherwise dark place. Within the candle’s flame can be seen an angel bearing the face of the subject. In the dark at the edges can be seen many demons, also with the face of the subject, crawling towards the edge of the light - their hands, with long fingers and claws, reaching toward the light and the angel.

After: Jones, Jonathan (2022) Interview: ‘An apparition came towards me’: Tracey Emin on seeing a ghost and building a new life in Margate. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/apr/25/tracey-emin-ghost-apparition-new-life-margate-cancer-nudes (Accessed 25/4/22).

Monday 23 May 2022

#098: Bringing out the light to dispel the dark

Oil on canvas. At the centre of the canvas a woman can be seen taking an orb of light from an open box and is in the process of giving this orb to a group of people on the right of the picture who are waiting patiently to receive it. Behind the woman at the centre is another version of herself, but naked and sitting with her head on her knees, hugging her legs and with her back to the rest of the scene.

The scene as a whole is very dark with the orb of light providing almost the only source of light, lighting the front of the woman and the crowd well/brightly and leaving the woman on the left, and the left hand edges of the painting, mostly in the dark. The scene takes place inside a stone building with one small window and a door visible on the right behind the waiting crowd. These allow a little more light on the right hand side of the painting behind the crowd.