Course Trip to London//Tracey Emin

After the Tate Britain and Turner's traditional paintings, we made our way to the White Cube gallery in Bermondsey, for something completely the opposite but equally as brilliant. The beautifully titled exhibition, 'The Last Great Adventure Is You', was named so as the focus of 'you' was originally intended to be referencing another person, but as Emin created the body of work over two years she realised that 'you' was herself.

The exhibition involved a number of both small scale nude drawings and large scale hand stitched pieces. Around the exhibition were the big, bold neon lights shaped into fabulous quotes focusing on deep feelings and love. There was also a big, sleek, white space that involved sculptural pieces made by Emin, of abstract nudes and body parts. Emin has described the sculptures as being very personal pieces; personal in that they allowed her to explore her own body and herself being an older woman, and personal in that you can quite clearly see where her fingers have worked the material and the processes she has gone through to make the actual pieces. Exploring herself as a naked form and accepting herself as an older woman in the part of life she is now reaching is also a theme that shows itself in the nude drawings and stitched pieces in the exhibition. The whole thing was a very personal project in which Emin was able to use herself as the subject matter, and in the video at the end of the exhibition where she describes the work she stated "I didn't want to reach a peak of anything, just half way in a twilight zone of love". So in creating such brave and confident pieces, Emin was simply aiming for self exploration and acceptance. Walking around the gallery, to me it it quite obvious that Emin has achieved this, with a range of materials and pieces showing the ideas and feelings she wished to explore.

'The Last Great Adventure Is You'

'Your Absence Only Makes Me Love You More'

'More Solitude'

'The Soul Will Always Do What It Needs To Do'

Large scaled hand stitched nudes