Essay-My Own Practices and Influence Of Artists Within
Are you a collector? I Collect Ideas By Razzledazzlethem
Visits to national and international galleries, exhibitions and museums have inspired and motivated my work.
Sam Taylor-wood for example, with her exhibition at the 'Tate Britain' inspired me with its use of emotion and context, particularly in her video installation 'killing time'. I also find Duane Hanson's life size figures at the 'Saatchi Gallery' brilliantly realistic, because their presence gave such a dramatic element of surprise. By contrast Tony Ourler's figure seem to be almost alive with the use of video. I also admire Tracy Emin's work, which refers to her own life experience, by interweaving and communicating such a strong message across to the public. Tracey Emin has even used her infamous Bed as a prop in her debut as set designer. The written word appears regularly in Emin's art sentimental embroideries and "handwritten" neon tubes as in the frigid light blue illumination of Fantastic to Feel Beautiful Again, 1997. She has sewn names, words, words and whole sentences on fabrics or cushions in a manic gesture of inner integration. Theses pieces and her videos, her journeys of remembrance to the scenes of her youth, it is as Emin herself has often emphasized, spiritual. I feel the public gain something from Emin these media do not offer, her art reveals a poetic and precise, obviously genuine world, which is capable of throwing back on one's own life and problems. The individual and the universal, the intimate and the public are continually interwoven in Emin's work. Facts expression, intimate details and confessions about her life make up the majority of her work. You realize the amount of text visible on almost every item. This I found surprising because Emin is a dyslexic, as the same as myself. They are littered with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. All of this relates directly back to Emin herself, her day-to-day life, how she's sees things and responds to the things around her. So in this context the subject of the work moves away from Emin herself and becomes more about experience, the nature of experience and how we cope with traumatic experience. It is people like Emin that remind us of our own frailty, that we will feel ashamed about parts of our life's and ultimately and that we are human. It is possibly for this reason that Emin is so often derided that in Emin we see glimpses of ourselves.