London, Hayward Gallery, Tracey Emin: Love is What You Want, 18 May – 29 August 2011
Catalogue Essay
“I need art like I need God.” Tracey Emin Tracey Emin uses neon light to illuminate emotions, memories, feelings and ideas in graphic messages. While neon has its sleazy connotations, Emin finds it sexy: “It’s spangly, it’s pulsating. It’s out there, it’s vibrant”. Translating handwriting into blown and bent neon tubing presents a crucial shift of context. This work was one of Emin’s first neon works and for her retrospective at the Hayward Gallery, London in 2011, the present lot was prominently displayed on the façade of the gallery walls.