Tracey Emin was born in 1963 and is a well known British Artist famous for her autobiographical work exploring a range of mediums and techniques, including drawing, sculpture, painting, printing, film, photography, neon text and sewn appliqué. Emin is probably most well known for her installation work “My Bed” which was shown at the Tate in 1999 which caused quite a stir when it was unveiled.
For the purpose of this blog post I will be looking at her works in mono printing, in particular the below, “Fuck you Eddy”.
Emin’s mono prints often have a diaristic style to them and feature text and image, both together and alone. Memories depicting harsh and evocative scenes feature in Emin’s work, with this particular piece referring to a sexual encounter with an older male named Edy. Displaying the nature of mono printing, Emin has printed the text depicting the memory both in the ‘correct’ way as well as back to front , as the mono printing process creates mirror images. Emin has also accompanied the text with scratchy depictions of buildings and scenes related to the encounter. These types of mono prints are rarely displayed on their own and often are grouped together to build a larger creation.
Rachel Matton 