“It’s not a viewing platform, it’s an experience”: Tracey Emin prepares to put bed on view at Tate Britain

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Mess-strewn match and pillows provide little comfort for artist as Tate Britain prepares redisplay

Turmoil and intense emotion are the feelings Tracey Emin sees in My Bed. Famously nominated for the 1999 Turner Prize, having been made in the artist’s Waterloo council flat the previous year, the remnant of a dark time for Margate’s best-known YBA is returning to Tate Britain for two years having been loaned to public collections by Count Christian Duerckheim, who bought the work for £2.2 million in July 2014.

“When I’m installing the bed it’s kind of really sad and very depressin’ because I’m actually going into a time capsule of my past,” said Emin, who has gifted six of her recent figure drawings to a display which includes two Francis Bacon paintings she has selected, Study of a Dog and Reclining Woman.

“In 1998 I had a complete, absolute breakdown and I spent four days in bed. I was asleep and semi-unconscious.

“When I did eventually get out of bed I had some water, went back, looked at the bedroom and couldn’t believe what I could see: this absolute mess and decay of my life.

“All of the things around the bed no longer relate to my life at all: the contraceptive pills, the condoms, the small knickers, even the belt that was the size of my waist.

“The idea of being with someone and not being with someone and how much life changes.”

An accompanying chronological survey of British art since 1540 has been refreshed by the gallery, with curators rehanging the section from the 1970s, 1980s and 2000s to accommodate works by the likes of Gilbert & George, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Richard Long.

After My Bed leaves Tate Britain, in June 2016, it will visit Turner Contemporary, in Emin’s hometown, and Tate Liverpool.

“I want the viewer to walk into the room and immediately have a reaction towards the bed,” she said. “It’s not a viewing platform, it’s an experience.

“Art isn’t for lookin’ at, art is for feeling – and that’s what’s important.”

• My Bed goes on display from March 31 2015. You can use the hashtag #MyBed on Twitter and see our selection of ten artists who have been bedroom exhibitionists.

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More from Culture24’s coverage of Tracey Emin:

Tracey Emin, Howard Hodgkin, Chris Ofili and friends unveil Olympic and Paralympic Games art

Tracey Emin Travelling Chess Set given "perfect context" at Whitworth Art Gallery

Aberdeen Art Gallery scores romantic coup with Tracey Emin neon For You love poem

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art522146-not-a-viewing-platform-an-experience-tracey-emin-prepares-to-put-bed-on-view-at-tate-britain