Issue 47

Tracey Emin:
The Distance of Your Heart at LoveArt, Sydney

Decades before the word ‘confessional' achieved internet-era currency, Tracey Emin was creating explosive art that existed in the messy spaces between intimacy, disclosure and longing. Whether she's making neons, sculptures, photographs, embroidery or paintings, the British artist has always given that age-old feminist mantra, “the personal is political”, her own original and deeply subversive twist.

A result of Emin's friendship with the curator Amanda Love, The Distance of Your Heart will see the artist bring a new suite of paintings, bronze sculptures as well as a brand-new neon to the Woollahra private gallery LoveArt, Sydney. Some works grapple with universal themes of loss and yearning while others will mirror the birds she created as part of her 2015 public art commission for the City of Sydney. For Emin, who will also curate a mixture of paintings, embroidery and small sculptures from the Love Collection, Australia's geographical position is a powerful metaphor for emotional isolation. Despite this, she also believes that birds, creatures with the ability to traverse thousands of kilometres – they've recurred in her work over the past few years – are harbingers of comfort, connection and solace. The Distance of Your Heart opens by appointment at LoveArt Sydney on March 22 and shows until May 22, 2018.

loveart.com

IMALENNOX STACMIACCA MelbourneMCA Roslyn Oxley Gallery
Issue 47