Royal Academician Tracey Emin unveiled a monumental Pro-Europe neon work this morning, attended by RA Director Tim Marlow, the BBC presenter Alan Yentob and many other art officials. The installation titled, “I Want My Time With You” is part of the Terrace Wires, public commissioning programme for new artwork by leading international artists.
“It is a statement that reaches out to everybody from Europe arriving into London’ – Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin CBE RA gave a passionate speech condemning Britain leaving the European Union and drew attention to the title replacing the end word ‘you’ with Europe.
Tim Marlow, Artistic Director at the Royal Academy of Arts, said: ‘It was reassuring to see that it needn’t take several tons of bronze to make a successful public sculpture, having a go at the dreadful colossus statue ‘The Meeting Place’ by Paul Day.
2018 marks the year, St Pancras International turns 150. The anniversary will celebrate St Pancras – the people, the place, the journey – a series of events, exhibitions and installations commissioned by HS1 Ltd will follow.
Emin’s handwriting light installation has been suspended above the Grand Terrace beneath the DENT London clock, hanging on wires from the station’s Grade 1 listed Barlow shed roof. At 20 meters long, the artwork is the largest text piece ever made by the artist and will remain on display until the end of the year.
This year marks the sixth year of the Terrace Wires commission at St Pancras International and is the fourth year of the station’s public sculpture series in partnership with the Royal Academy, which has so far included artworks from Cornelia Parker RA with One More Time in 2015, Ron Arad RA’s Thought of Train of Thought in 2016, and Conrad Shawcross’ The Interpretation of Movement (a 9:8 in blue) in 2017. It also marks the 250th anniversary of the Royal Academy of Arts and the 150th anniversary of St Pancras International station.
Terrace Wires is a highly visible programme for public art, offering 50 million travellers each year the chance to experience the latest contemporary art as they pass through the station. This partnership between the Royal Academy of Arts and HS1 Ltd. builds on the shared belief in the values of bringing art to the community. The commission is the Royal Academy’s only external public sculpture series in London and is free to view.
Tracey Emin was born in London in 1963 and studied at Maidstone College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. She has exhibited extensively internationally, including solo and group exhibitions in Holland, Germany, Japan, Australia and America. Most recently, Emin’s work has been shown in the following solo exhibitions: The Memory of Your Touch, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (2017), Surrounded by You, Château La Coste, Aix-En-Provence, France (2017), I cried because I love you, Lehmann Maupin and White Cube, Hong Kong (2016), Angel without You, Miami MoCA, Miami (2013) and a major survey exhibition Love Is What You Want, Hayward Gallery, London (2011). She has also entered her work into a series of acclaimed dialogues with the work of past masters she admires, most notably: Tracey Emin, My Bed / JMW Turner, Turner Contemporary, Margate (2017), In Focus: Tracey Emin and William Blake, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool (2016), Tracey Emin and Francis Bacon, Tate Britain, London (2015), Where I Want to Go, with Egon Schiele, The Leopold Museum, Vienna (2015). Tracey Emin represented the UK at the Venice Biennale in 2007 with the exhibition Borrowed Light and was elected to the Royal Academy in the same year. In 2011, she was appointed Professor of Drawing at The Royal College of Art, London, and in 2012 Queen Elizabeth II appointed her Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her contributions to the visual arts.
Photos: P C Robinson © 2018 Artlyst