Everybody Needs a Place to Think
Everybody Needs a Place to Think
Mixed Media
Tracey Emin
£400-£600Value Indicator
$850-$1,250 Value Indicator
$750-$1,100 Value Indicator
¥3,900-¥6,000 Value Indicator
€500-€700 Value Indicator
$4,200-$6,500 Value Indicator
¥80,000-¥120,000 Value Indicator
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52 x 52cm, Edition of 1500, Mixed Media
Medium: Mixed Media
Edition size: 1500
Year: 2002
Size: H 52cm x W 52cm
Signed: No
Format: Mixed Media
Last Auction: December 2024
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Meaning & Analysis
Everybody Needs A Place To Think is a prime example of Tracey Emin’s mastery over her interdisciplinary approach to material and visual culture. Emin produced the work by screen printing word and image onto a handkerchief. The words “BBC Four” occur three times in the work, alongside the title of the work and a small illustration of a dog with a bone, all executed in blue ink on the white fabric. Underneath this composition is Emin’s signature and the date of the work’s creation.
This work was created in 2002 to commemorate the launch of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s new channel BBC Four. In response to her commission from the BBC, Emin created this screen printed handkerchief alongside a handwritten invitation to the launch party of the channel on 28 February, 2002. Typical of her wry sense of humour, this invitation read “Please bring this invitation with you, otherwise you’re not going to get in, Love, Tracey X”.
It seems only fitting that Emin should have produced a printed handkerchief for this particular commission, as BBC Four was created to showcase stirring and inspiring documentaries and dramas. As the title of the work would suggest, the new channel provided “a place to think”, while the execution of the work on a handkerchief itself signals the emotional nature of the programmes being broadcasted.
Tracey Emin, born in 1963, stands as a fearless provocateur in the contemporary art scene. A trailblazer of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement in the late 1980s, the artist has sparked conversation and controversy for decades. Confronting themes of love, trauma and femininity with great vulnerability, Emin's work is a visceral tapestry of her life and has forged an intimate dialogue between artist and audience. In 1999, this raw approach to storytelling won her a nomination to the Turner Prize and, in 2007, it got her a coveted spot as a Royal Academician at the Royal Academy of Arts (RA).
