Why I never became a dancer (1995) recalls some particularly upsetting events from the artists adolescence. The artist speaks over these images, explaining that she gave up school at thirteen to hang out in cafés and bars, or drink cider on the beach. Her favourite pastime, she says, was sex: “It was something you could just do, and it was for free.” She goes on to chronicle her routine, sleeping with men much older than herself. They would buy fish and chips before going off into an alley, a park or “even a hotel”. Her tone is resigned and matter-of-fact, as she muses, “The reason why these men wanted to fuck me, a girl of fourteen, was because they weren’t men. They were less, less than human.” As time passed, she continues, the thrill of sex dissipated and by fifteen her real passion was dance. She describes it as a fantasy, where she could transcend her life in Margate and dream of escape. Beginning with the title words written large on a wall, the camera pans around scenes of Margate, significant to Emin’s past, including the school she attended, the sea front, shopping arcades and the town's dramatic clock tower. This sequence is overlaid with the voice of the artist narrating the story of her youth spent in Margate. The video climaxes with her attempt to win the finals of the local disco-dancing competition and escape to London to compete for the British Disco Dance Championship 1978.
Public Collections:
Arts Council of Great Britain, UK
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tate, London, UK
Selected Exhibitions:
2021, Pleasure Beach, Sammlung Goetz, Unter Deck, Munich, Germany
2021, A FIRE IN MY BELLY, Julia Stoscheck Collection, Berlin, Germany
2019, MUSEUM, Museum Für Morderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
2017, Tread Softly: Arts Council Collection, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK (exh. cat)
2016, On How To Become A Real Person, Museum fur Neue Kunst, Freiburg, Switzerland
2015, Shame, Museum Dr. Guislain, Gent, Belgium
2015, Dangerous Women! From Kauffmann to Emin, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth, UK
2013, Art from Britain and Poland from 1990, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
2013, Stedelijk @ TrouwAmsterdamn: Contemporary Art Club, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2013, Fail Better, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
2012, Tracey Emin, Malba, Buenas Aires (exh. cat)
2011, Move: Choreographing You, Hayward Gallery, London, UK; traveling to Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany; K20 Kustsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany (exh. cat)
2010, Lido Love, London Fields Lido, London, UK
2009, Tracey Emin: 20 Years, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
2009, Tracey Emin: 20 Años, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Málaga, Spain
2008, Tracey Emin: 20 Years, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK (exh. cat)
2008, WORD - TALE mixed narrations: a video parade from different viewpoints, Hacettepe Art Museum, Ankara, Turkey
2007, How to Improve the World: British Art 1946-2006, Hayward Gallery, London, UK (exh. cat)
2005, Identity and Nomadism, Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy
2002, Ten Years, Tracey Emin, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1995 – 1998, The Tracey Emin Museum, London, UK
Selected Literature:
— Dewulf, Bernard et al., Museum Dr. Guislain Gent: Honte/Shame/Schaamte. Tielt: Lannoo, 2015, ill. p. 9
— Rosenthal, Stephanie ed., Move: Choreographing You: Art & Dance Since the 1960s. London: Hayward Publishing, 2011, ill p. 150
— Exh. Cat. Why I never became a dancer. Sammlung Goetz im Haus der Kunst, Germany, 2011
— Dong, Song, Dad and Mom, Don’t Worry About Us, We Are All Well. San Francisco: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2011, p. 87
— Exh. Cat. Visions du Réel Festival international de cinema. 2010, ill p. 468
— Exh. Cat. Once Upon a time...Artists & Storytelling, London: The Courtauld Institute of Art, 2009
— Exh. Cat. WORD - TALE mixed narrations: a video parade from different viewpoints, Ankara, 2008, ill. 29 - 31
— Brown, Neal, Tracey Emin (Modern Artists). London: Tate Publishing, 2006, ill. p. 80 - 81
— Emin, Tracey and Freedman, Carl, Tracey Emin. Ed. Honey Luard. New York: Rizzoli, 2006, ill. p.195, 197, 199
— Exh. Cat. Stranger than Fiction. London: Hayward Gallery, 2004, ill. p. 37
— Exh. Cat. Happiness. Tokyo: Mori Art Museum, 2003, ill. p. 160
— Exh. Cat. A Bigger Splash. Sao Paulo: Brasil Connects, 2003, ill. p. 304-305
— Exh. Cat. fast forward: Media Art Sammlung Goetz. Ed. Stephan Urbaschek. Karlsruhe: Sammlung Goetz, 2003, ill. p. 146-148
— The Art of Tracey Emin. Ed. Mandy Merck and Chris Townsend. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002, ill. p. 31
— Mey, Kerstin, Sculpsit: Contemporary Artists on Sculpture and Beyond. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001, ill. p. 63, 78
— Exh. Cat. UBS Warburg. London: UBS Warburg. 2001, ill. p.23
— Exh. Cat. Sweetie: Identita feminile nel video britannico. Rome: Castelvecchi Arte, 1999, ill. p. 91
— Exh. Cat. Tracey Emin. I Need Art Like I Need God, South London Gallery. Ed. Honey Luard. London: Jay Jopling, 1998, ill. p. 28-29
— Exh. Cat. Emotion- Young British and American Art from the Goetz Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998, ill. p. 33-35
— Exh. Cat. Art from the UK. Munchen: Sammlung Goetz, 1997, ill. p. 64 - 66
— Exh. Cat. International Award for Video Art 1997. Baden-Baden: Videokunstpreis, 1997, ill. p. 16
— Schumacher, Rainald and Matthias Winzen (eds.), Just Love Me: Post/Feminist Positions of the 1990s from the Goetz Collection. Cologne: Verlag Der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2003
