Interpreting a Bed : a glance at the reception of Tracey Emin`s My Bed (1998) and the challenges of self-representation

Abstract

In this dissertation I will be discussing one of the decisive periods of Tracey Emin’s career; the year 1999. I will approach this period through art criticism and a close reading of newspaper articles dealing with Emin’s work displayed at the Turner Prize exhibition. In addition I will discuss how the self-representation in her work, particularly in the installation My Bed (1998), and her performance in media is related to women’s self-representation in art in the late 20th century and how this may have reflected on the criticism. My primary sources for this dissertation will be critiques of Tracey Emin’s works in the Turner Prize exhibition at Tate Gallery in London from October 20th 1999 to December 31st 1999, published in British national newspapers during the period 1999-2000. I will be looking at 23 articles from the newspapers The Guardian, The Independent and The Times. These articles are critiques and commentaries of the exhibition, the candidates and commentaries to the announcement of the winner of the Turner Prize 1999. Emin’s work is clearly influenced by expressionism but it is also influenced by the 1970s feminist art in the use of personal experience and the use of techniques from crafts. I will discuss the themes of self-representation and subjectivity in the light of texts by Marsha Meskimmon and Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson. Women’s art production in the 20th century has been especially engaged in self-representation. Self-portraiture is not and has never been an exclusively male genre, but the attitudes towards women’s self-portraiture and autobiographical work has been different. Traditionally it has been seen to be merely personal and narcissistic. Women have traditionally been the object in art, and being simultaneously an object and a subject “is to stage a crucial intervention” according to Meskimmon. In the 20th century many women artists have produced self-portraits that comment on the discourse that defines the “woman”. By taking control of the representation of these themes Meskimmon claims that the artists are challenging the traditional representations of women. Emin opposes the reading of her work as feminist art, and claims that it portrays general human experiences. Sometimes she contradicts this in her comments about her work, and the general attitude in the reception of her work seems to be that it deals with themes that can be seen as gender specific. I have chosen to interpret the feminist implications of her installation My Bed through Amelia Jones’ concept of parafeminism, which she presents in her book Self/Image. Technology, representation and the contemporary subject (2006).