Although Tracey Emin’s celebrated Unmade Bed attracted a great deal of negative comment when it was first exhibited (and I guess it continues to do so) in fact it made very well a serious point. I understand that the story behind it is that she went back into her bedroom and found herself confronted by the sordid mess that was the result of her life at the time. At that moment she realised that this was a perfect visual representation of the state of inner disorder and depression into which she had sunk. So she decided to exhibit it.
I have passed through a similar process today….although not quite so extreme. The morning was passed in the attempt to give some sort of order to my art files. The experience was a salutary one. I realised just how much the possibilities of moving forward in my life were being obstructed by the burden of past experience. A good deal of the content of the filing cabinet was essentially irrelevant to anything I am trying to achieve today. What made the situation worse was the fact that I had adopted two different and incompatible principles in creating files. Some were based upon projects and others were based upon exhibiting venues. It was entirely unclear as to where I should look for anything. If I wanted to find information about my Set Apart project, for example, would I find it in a file of that title, or might it be in a file for Ripon Cathedral, where I exhibited it? If I wanted information about a potential exhibiting venue was it more likely that I would find it under “Contacts”, or the title of the project I had had in mind to show there? In the latter case it would be found in a set of files, grouped together under “Projects”. It was a mess.
So Tracey Emin and I have been confronted by the same kind of experience, namely, the revelation that the condition of some part of our regular living environment is a wonderful metaphor for the parlous state of our lives. There was a moment of epiphany in which we each concluded, “This cannot go on!” I am still debating the next stage in the process. Should I exhibit my filing cabinet? Is it likely to establish my reputation as an artist?