research. Art In Context. Personal Investigation

Contemporary Art

The parallels of Tracey Emin and Louise Bourgeois. The methods in which they put themselves into their work and how it had inspired me.

I want to compare the Work of Tracey Emin and Louise Bourgeois as they have many similarities and differences which have inspired me in my own work. First I want to look at why I feel inspired by them in my own work.

Tracey Emin is an artist I have only just really started to enjoy. She has a depth to her work which you can take a lot from.  I am most impressed with the way she is open with her thoughts expressed through paintings and extremely personal work. I envy her strength for allowing it to be seen. I have this internal struggle to let everyone see my own thoughts so I have to make them very open ended and not aimed at anyone in particular. She uses both imagery and words which make it obvious and she has no issue showing grievances with past lovers and memories of particular people. Her life was filled with experiences which I can relate to.

I particularly was drawn to her Quilt series. Not only were they very honest pieces, they questioned the position of textile art in predominantly contemporary art world. Being an established artist really made it so she had privilege to be able to exhibit this work in a Galleries. I had made a piece based on these quilts aimed at politics, a sort of protest art.

It was a bit more thought out than Emin's work. She made them with spelling mistakes like she was writing in a diary. This idea of using works to express feelings has always been in me. I kept diaries as a child into my late teens. Then it stopped I grew out of it I guess but I feel like sometimes that act of writing down events and feelings makes you confront it and I don't think I often wanted to do that. I'd rather hide from them. There's a big chunk of my 20s I didn't write about and in ways I'm glad but in ways I wish I had had the courage to do it. 

I think I feel close to her work as I feel I have similarities to her. Only going by what I've read about her and her work. Emin seems to just let it all go. Not saying that it wasn't hard to do. It was out in the open for all to see and judge. She produced a lot of the quilts around the age I am now. Is it that a woman gets to a certain age where certain things occur and you feel comfortable about letting go of a lot of personal woes? I feel like it is pouring out of me. It stops and starts. I get stuck on the same thoughts. Confronting them for the first time in decades. Realising that the person I thought I was doesn't exist, it was fabricated in my head to fit a purpose of sell inflicted guilt and every ounce of happiness I felt carried that feeling of guilt. What a horrible way to live. This is why I think my thoughts can get me in trouble if they are out in the open coz I am too honest about a lot of feelings. Even in private. I felt like I purposely disagree with people so they will leave me alone, and because I disagree with their personality, I defend my own mental health this way. I don't want to surround myself with people I don't need so I don't cater to the needs of people who think I should be nice to them when they've been awful to me.

It's this holding people at arms length feel I get from her work. I very rarely trust people. And I know that every woman has this issue. And I can understand why she was the way she was around art critics and the art world. Coz it is dominated by men and they have no idea what we go through. How much pressure is put on us for all areas of our life. I feel an affinity to her. And although I don't particularly consider myself a massive feminist, as I don't preach about it, I feel protective of other females particularly in the creative world. 

I bought a copy of Emin's One Thousand Drawings as I came across a copy with a very good price and a rare purchase. I haven't even got half way through it yet but you can see how she works. This repetition really works to get an idea or thought out. She often drew her dreams and I decided to let that happen if it did. I am a vivid dreamer so I always have something going on. But the first dream was connected to an old flame, now a friend, and how they wanted to play more music and share it. Then they popped into my dream that night and this phrase stuck with me when I had woken up alongside an image of pulling on my socks like I was leaving. It doesn't have much meaning other than maybe unconscious traces of the past. I drew out a rough image I felt was accurate in a dream like way. Not a complete image. I used mono print which she often used as it's quick and has a nice quality of line. This image is flipped so you can read it.

I only did one other drawing of a door and then this idea kind of fell down the wayside. I do like this idea though. I used to write down my dreams in my diaries so this is an extension of that for me. She didn't just do dreams. often it was memories or thoughts. like taking a note. Which I do with my phone. I guess being in a studio you probably just pick up a brush or whatever is close and take note in a verbal and visual way. 

Until you look at the way in which someone has influenced you and how you realise how you don't have to separate yourself so much between being an art student and an artist. You can call yourself both equally. I'm always learning stuff about myself and I think for both Emin and Bourgeios they spend their whole life seeking out the truth. Evolving as they grew as a person and their creative needs changed. 

Louise Bourgeois was someone I wasn't as familiar with however I looked at her work for another unit and discovered that she was also someone who took a lot from her childhood and memories. Her method is somewhat different to Emin but both work in a cathartic searching way. 

She kept diaries in various ways. written, verbal and visual. Not usually in an account of the day she had had but in poetic form. This is the way in which I have been writing whenever I get a thought or feeling about something I tend to structure it like a poem. short bursts of words per line. To get whatever it is out of me. She also worked with vague sentences. Questioning what on earth she is talking about but kind of knowing at the same time because you had felt it before. the phrase 'I had a flashback of something that never existed', printed in one of her fabric books, kind of reflects the title of my Graded Unit 'An Idea Of Who I Was', looking at memories and recollection of imcomplete and wrong memories made up in my mind. 

I don't like to be too literal in the way that people can read exact events or see who I am talking about so the vagueness works for me in this way, so I can hide under techniques to obscure my thoughts. I think that's a noted difference between Emin and bourgeois in that they both express themselves with words but one is more literal than the other. But both remain raw.

(Femme Maison)

Bourgeois used a lot of symbolism. her Femme Maison in particular has many layers to it and you interpret it in different ways. What I've read I like the idea that it is a woman with her head stuck in a house of memories. things you carry around with you even when you outgrow them. Her half naked body is exposed to the world as a symbol of shame possibly or confidence. 

I feel like both Emin and Bourgeois were mixed discipline and I can relate to it. I am someone who can't just make the same thing in the same style over and over. My patience for repetition only goes so far them falls away and I get bored and need to try something else. Ever evolving like these ladies which I find so inspiring. You can still identify an Emin piece but they don't stand still. I love that they collaborated together on a series of paintings. It really marries the idea that they are similar but different. Bourgeois painted first the Emin added over the top of that. Just so inspiring. I think collaboration is good for the creative soul but I find trust hard when it comes to my work. But I love the idea of just letting go and having fun with it. 

(Reaching For You)

(A Sparrows Heart)

(I Wanted To Love You More)

(Do Not Abandon Me, a series of work)

I feel that I take more from Emin than I do Bourgeois but they both give me things in their own way. As soon as I began to use words in my work it was Emin who pulled me out of my shell. I saw how much she shared and what language she used. She wasn't afraid to be vulgar. I might still hold back a little but I am writing more honestly about myself and my experiences than ever before. I think this also comes with age. The ability to reflect on what has happened and it not to feel so painful. Not as painful as it felt 10 years ago or 20 years ago. I feel like at a certain age you begin to be able to navigate your way around these feelings. 

Of course this won't fully heal me but I think for both these artists and myself we use it as a therapy. A way to let it go. A safe way to be angry. And it will continue throughout my life. I might not share the whole picture. But some parts of your work are allowed to remain private. 

Next I want to look at particular pieces, some I've already mentioned, a bit closer and compare Emin and Bourgeois' method of working.