house. welcome to this cultural life. your life has always run through your art but when did the art start? it took off at school because i missed so much school. i stopped going to school when i was about 13 and i had to go back when i was 15, i went back for three months and i had to do three days a week by law, otherwise my mum would have been in trouble with social services and things, ijust did whatever i wanted to do in art, and i think that s what it was, really, it had become me in a serious way and because the teachers took me seriously and trusted me, that was quite a fantastic thing at the age of 15 when no one else did, and i didn t have much else to hold onto at the time and if i had not have done art at school, i think god knows who would have happened to me. no idea. this was margate where you grew up. was there any access to museums, galleries, culture? no, see, i didn t even know art museums really existed. there was something like in my mind, when i was real
hello, i m john wilson. welcome to this cultural life, the radio four podcast in which i ask leading creative figures to reveal key moments and cultural works that fired their imagination and had a profound impact on their own art. my guest is tracey emin, an artist who has always put her own life at the centre of her work. in drawings, paintings, videos, sculptures and installations, she tells very personal stories. we met in a radio studio in the bbc broadcasting house. welcome to this cultural life. your life has always run through your art but when did the art start? it took off at school because i missed so much school. i stopped going to school when i was about 13 and i had to go back when i was 15, i went back for three months and i had to do three days a week by law, otherwise my mum would have been in trouble with social services and things, and ijust did whatever i wanted to do in art, and i think that s what it was, really, it had become me in a serious way and bec
who has always put her own life at the centre of her work, in drawings, paintings, videos, sculptures and installations, she tells very personal stories. we met in a radio studio in the bbc broadcasting house. welcome to this cultural life. your life is always has gone through your art but wended the art stop? it took off at school wended the art stop? it took off at school because - wended the art stop? it took off at school because i - wended the art stop? it took. off at school because i stopped going to school when i was about 13 and i had to go back when i was 15, i went back for three months and i had to do three months and i had to do three days a week by law, otherwise my mum would have beenin otherwise my mum would have been in trouble with social services and things, and ijust did whatever i wanted to do, and i think that s what it was really, it had become me in a serious way and because the teachers took me seriously and trusted me, that was quite a fantastic th
so, yeah. i never really talk about my thing with bowie much because it sounds a bit, i don t know, unreal, really, but yes, i was friends with him, good friend,s and he was.it was just brilliant. to me, itjust made sense that we were friends, just made sense. it s interesting, you say about the cover for heroes, or lodger, and linking to egon schiele, opening your eyes to new art. did he continue to do that when you knew him, was he a direct influence on your work? no, it was the other way around, wasn t it? with art, he really loved my art and i really loved his music, but this sounds silly, because i can t sing a word, i can t sing a note and he d say to me, i could get you to sing. we could do a song together. i ve got the perfect song that you could sing . and i said, i can t sing, and he said, yes, you could. and i always wish i d done it now. it would ve been brilliant. was he serious? did he have a song for you? yes, he said, i ve got this
there was something like in my mind, when i was really young, an art museum was where the mona lisa lived or something, it wasn t somewhere where you could go, but saying that, when i was very young, we used to spend time in turkey and i went to topkapi museum, hagia sophia, blue mosque in istanbul, so i had this idea of this other kind of culture but it was partly my culture because i was half turkish. it wasn t to do without art and culture, it was just things that existed in the world, and i remember always being completely, totally spellbound byjohn the baptist s hand, and that was in topkapi museum when i was little, and when i went back, to istanbul as i was older, doing different things, i always used to go to topkapi and look at john the baptist s hand because