Beyond its Tate Modern run, A Second Life will tour to Denmark, South Korea and Australia. Emin has obviously long outgrown the YBAs; she’s now a dame (appointed in 2024); an active philanthropist (funding facilities for artists in her seaside hometown of Margate); a celebrity (take the recent media buzz around her hangout with Madonna); ultimately, a talent in her creative prime.
“The lack of self-consciousness is lovely, but it’s the emotional work which hits really hard,” says Gaskin. “And I think it’s really time for this exhibition to happen now, because it needed time for all that YBA shouting to shut up for a while and let other things happen. I think it’s symbolic that she has this longevity. She’s got a chance to breathe out – and there’s a nice sort of sober moment for us to look at her as a proper artist.”
Emin concludes, in conversation with Balshaw for her exhibition catalogue: “My Bed… now, when people see it they don’t go oh, they go ah. Because it looks so sweet. It’s so sad. It’s got this whole history. It has an entity that is not to do with me anymore. I’m awake. My Bed has its own life. And so people actually feel for that bed. Whereas at the time, they felt disgust, and shock…
“Or they build themselves up to something which isn’t there. It’s just a little bed really, with lots of things that show my life or how I lived for a moment.”
Tracey Emin: A Second Life is at Tate Modern, London until 31 August.
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