Tracey Emin - Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made

With all of us being in Lockdown(in UK anyway) we thought would be an interesting time to shine a light on two of our favourite artists that have used self isolation as a driving force in their work, first up is Tracey Emin and her 1996 performance piece 'Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made'

Emin lived in a locked room in a gallery for fourteen days, with nothing but a lot of empty canvases and art materials, in an attempt to reconcile herself with paintings. Viewed through a series of wide-angle lenses embedded in the walls, Emin could be watched, stark naked, shaking off her painting demons. Starting by making images like the artists she really admired (i.e. Egon Schiele, Edvard Munch, Yves Klein), Emin's two-week art-therapy session resulted in a massive outpouring of autobiographical images, and the discovery of a style all her own. The room was extracted in its entirety, and now exists as an installation work.

Such an inspiring artist pushing herself to the edge and really leaving herself exposed both physically being naked in front of the public and conceptually in her artwork which is so brash and honest.