Friday 27 May 2022 05:13 PM Tracey Emin unveils new art exhibition in cancer comeback, including a 20ft ... trends now
A famous British artist who recently recovered from multiple cancer surgeries has today unveiled a 20ft bronze sculpture near Edinburgh.
Tracey Emin, CBE, was given the all-clear from bladder cancer last year after having surgery to remove her bladder, womb, urethra, parts of her intestines and lymph nodes as well as half of her vagina.
The 58-year-old artist said her latest works, produced over the last two years in her studios in Margate and London, were an 'expression of love, hope and the fragility of the human form'.
A collection of her works will be exhibited from 29 May to 2 October 2022 at Jupiter Artland in Scotland, with the principal piece being a massive bronze figure, entitled 'I Lay Here For You'.
The 20ft bronze sculpture is situated in a woodland clearing and depicts a female figure, which is said to be 'lying perpetually in wait'.
Tracey Emin, 58, today unveiled a 20ft bronze statue of a prostrated woman (pictured), which is the principal piece in her upcoming exhibition entitled 'I Lay Here For You'
The 58-year-old artist, who is known for her 'confessional style' of art, will exhibit a collection of her works at Jupiter Artland in Scotland from 29 May to 2 October 2022
Emin said last year that she had stopped painting, as she needed to focus all of her willpower on staying alive as she battled 'really, really aggressive' bladder cancer
According to a press release, the statue 'resists onlookers and her gaze is turned inwards towards herself'.
The exhibition comes just over a year since Emin told BBC Newsnight had stopped making art due to her cancer struggle.
Emin said in April 2021: 'I'm not painting because I'm using my willpower to stay alive. That's what I'm doing.'
Emin, best known for works such as her unmade bed and the tent Everyone I Have Ever Slept With, added she hoped to return to painting in the future.
'I never realised how much I wanted to live until I thought I was going to die,' she said after learning a year ago that doctors had successfully removed all of the cancer.
She found she had a tumour in her bladder in June 2020 and was suffering with very aggressive squamous cell cancer, which surgeons feared would kill her in months if it spread to her lymph nodes.
The statue of a prostrated woman is said to resist onlookers, turning her gaze inwards towards herself
'I Lay Here For You' was cast in bronze from a clay version moulded by Emin and has been placed in an old-growth beech grove
The artist's bed appears as a 'recurring motif' throughout the exhibition, a throwback to 1999 when she had her own bed installed in the Tate as an artistic representation of her personal battle with depression
The exhibition will be spread out over indoor rooms and outdoor sculpture parks at Jupiter Artland, near Edinburgh
Emnin said her surgeon had called her a 'miracle woman' because of how quickly she had recovered from the harrowing operation, which saw her lose her bladder, womb, urethra, parts of her intestines and lymph nodes as well as half of her vagina
'I never realised how much I wanted to live until I thought I was going to die,' Emin said last year in an interview with BBC Newsnight
Throughout the indoor galleries in the exhibition, the artist's bed appears as a 'recurring motif'.
Emin gained notoriety in 1999 when she had her own bed displayed at the Tate, covered with items such as condoms, contraceptive pills, underwear stained with menstrual blood, money and cigarette ends.
