Interview: Tracey Emin
Updated on 27 May 2009
Artist Tracey Emin talks to Nicholas Glass about her latest exhibition, Those Who Suffer Love, at the White Cube gallery in London.
She says that the exhibition "suits the time we are living in".
"I feel that this show is very good socially, morally, ethically, politically, very good timing for what is going on at the moment," she says. "The fact that I've been planning this show for two years couldn't be better for me."
"I think we need to see things more stripped-back and raw within our society. People have to be nicer to each other and be more honest with each other for a start.
"And because of the recession, approaching depression at the moment, people haven't got the time for puffy, fluffy things. They need to have it as it is, and get it as quickly as possible.
"So it's important on lots and lots of different levels."
She describes how her approach to life is changing now she is "four years off 50", and the title of the exhibition, Those That Suffer Love, reflects that.
"I've always said it is sex that gets me out of bed in the morning, it is sex that keeps me in bed," she says. "Now my life is very different. Now it is definitely all about the ideas, and about being in control of myself, and understanding myself a lot more. That is quite interesting, but also I am afraid of that."
