I've Got It All

Emin is a contemporary visual artist who has become famous for the daring and provocative tone of her works. Throughout her oeuvre, intimate nocturnal confessions go hand in hand with wit and humour, with which the artist expresses her innermost fears, ambitions and hopes for the future to the viewer. I’ve Got it All, a work that the artist produced in 2000, came at the height of Emin’s fame, following her 1999 Turner prize nomination for My Bed, exhibited at Tate Modern.

The image is taken from a performance made that same year, where Emin shoved banknotes and coins into her crotch. In the image, Emin represents with satirical humour her newly found fame and position within the art establishment, which comes with financial stability. At the same time, the Polaroid also attests to the artist’s desire for more money. This form of greed pertains to the artist as much as to the viewer, and therefore the image speaks both to Emin’s and society’s necessity of accumulating wealth. I’ve Got It All speaks to Emin’s ability to be confrontational and to tackle common realities society is ashamed to admit. That Emin is not scared to confront these thematics, of the necessity for money and fame, and that her works are rid of a sense of judgement, is what has made her art so successful and popular.