Author Archives: Caroline Perkins

Caroline Perkins: Task 2 Consume A Book

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Consume a book: Tracey Emin, Borrowed Light

The book is a catalogue of Emin’s contribution to the Venice Biennale exhibition called Borrowed Light .  The book included essays that contributed to the catalogue. There is also an essay for the leaflet and an interview with Tracey Emin within the content.

The essays within the exhibition catalogue give the Reader a variety of versions of Tracy Emin. The common thread through these contributions are the way Emin’s revelations about herself are actually revelations about us all. As Rudi Fuchs reveals about the effect Emin’s work has on him.
“I know what it tells me and so do you. It is a universal feeling like all sincere feelings when you are attentive you can be very close to that.” (Emin, 2007)

Toby Forward says in his essay entitled Naked and Unashamed, that, “Tracey’s work is about me” (Emin, 2007).
Both these men are happy to identify themselves with the feelings that Emin expresses,  this suggest the work cuts across sex, gender and age. The essays suggest that her work is about being human rather than simply about the female experience.

Emin, T., 2007. Borrowed Light. [Art] (British Pavilion 52nd Venice Biennale).

 

Caroline Perkins: Task 1, Passport: Identity and Obscurity

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PASSPORT

I separated the information into two categories,  what I can’t change, and who I have become.  The watermark is made up of images of my finger prints and pictures of me in different stages of my life. On the surface of this printed paper I put things that I had done that symbolised things that I have experienced and things I am interested in.

At the front of the passport I placed a recent picture cut into strips to obscure my identity.  I disagree with the concept of passports they restrict and separate humans by birthplace and nationality.  

Inside I put representations of clay pots as I used to be a ceramicist.  I heard the news of Hugh Heffner’s death on the day of the project and it reminded me that, I’m ashamed to say, I worked for Playboy  I believe that Playboy stands for the subjugation of women by the patriarchal society and the constraints that put on me.

The three symbols for the male represent the three men in my life: my partner and my two sons.

This project is only a start as it has unveiled areas of my life I would like to explore further things in my memory that I have buried or hidden from myself.