Fifty Shades of Tracey: Orgasmic Authenticity?
By Ruth Geldard
Nearing the end of #Fifty shades of Grey I am heavy with the weight of orgasms as they: convulse, clench, fracture and unravel the heroine throughout the book. Ana (the heroine) seems unable to walk through a room without "exploding" all over the place. It was in this rather jaded mood brought on by orgasm fatigue that I saw #Tracey Emin's new exhibition: She Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea at #Turner #Contemporary #Margate.
The effect of the cool light and atmosphere in the the gallery is immediately antidotal, I am drawn to a series of large paintings scruffy and dashed off. But hello, they are not paintings at all they are meticulous embroideries in heavenly shades of blue. The central motif, a woman lying on her back in an autoerotic pose is amplified and underlined by the staccato effect of the stitches emulating Emin's spidery and tenuous drawings. Close up and all is abstract, wedgewood coloured ink on creamy calico, coolly classical and tensely inward looking. A rare intimate, authentic and female perspective.
If F.S.O.G. is processed food then Emin is fine dining.
Photo credit: The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/may/26/tracey-emin-margate-exhibition-turner