Suffer Love II, 2009
What: TRACEY EMIN - THOSE WHO SUFFER LOVE
Where: WHITE CUBE, MASON’S YARD, LONDON SW1Y 6BU
When: 29 MAY—4 JULY, TUESDAY—SATURDAY
How (much?): FREE ADMISSION
WHAT THEY SAY: The title for my show is self-explanatory: love rarely comes easily and if it does, it usually goes quite quickly. And there is death, and loss, which at some point in our lives we all have to deal with. I’m constantly fighting with the notion of love and passion. Love, sex, lust – in my heart and mind there is always some battle, some kind of conflict. This show is essentially a drawing’s show. Everything is simple and linear, straight to the point. The show is to coincide with the release of [Emin’s] book “One Thousand Drawings” published by Rizzoli.
WHAT WE SAY: Love, to some, is a divine inspiration. For Tracey Emin, it is represented by an animated masturbating female figure and neon lights reminiscent of a funky, cheap motel. It all starts with a lustful encounter, develops into love, longing, yearning and ends abruptly in woeful disappointment. Mostly in forms of mono-prints and embroidered blankets, Emin’s work does not merely retell those love tragedies. It exudes loneliness, frustration and alienation. Indeed, “traumatic” is the word to sum up Emin’s “Those that Suffer Love.” Though Emin is a highly intellectual artist, this exhibition is all about raw emotion. Under the pink neon lights that scribble,
“Oh Christ I just wanted you
To fuck me
And then
I became greedy I wanted
You to love me,”
one can feel the soothing warmth of love and longing, the sensuality that is alluring, and the desire that is never fulfilled. This is “love” in quotation marks—the “love” that is not romanticized but sexualized.
VERDICT: It needs some serious attention.
Words: Poonperm Paitayawat
Image: Courtesy of White Cube