Top Spot

Executed in 2000, this work is number five from an edition of ten

Emin's video CV is an accompaniment to her work on paper, Tracey Emin CV 1995 (Tate T07632), which is a potted history of the artist's professional and emotional life from conception until 1995. This CV, read aloud by Emin, constitutes the sound-track to the video and provides contrasting background to the visual information on display. As Emin narrates her story of trauma and abuse, mixed with pleasure and success, the video takes the viewer on a journey through the artist's home. The artist is not visibly present in person until the last frames when she appears curled up naked on the floor of her sitting-room at the feet of her mother (who wears black sunglasses and looks away from both her daughter and the camera). Like Emin's handwritten CV, the video constitutes her self-portrait, in this instance adding the component of a journey around the space of her apartment to her narrating voice. -Tate

"Have you ever regret about not having kids?" - "Yes, I have, Sometimes"

Emin uses her emotional life as the source and subject matter of her art. This takes the form of narrative or documentation of traumatic events such as the death of a family member or close friend, her rape and her abortions, coupled with the direct expression of such feelings as love, hate, anger, fear and desire. By sharing thoughts and feelings of the type for which people are generally made to feel ashamed, Emin taps into collective experience in an affirmative way.