“Neon is emotional for everybody, the neon and argon gases make us feel positive, that’s why you have neon at funfairs, casinos, red-light districts, and bars. It’s also to do with the way it electronically pulsates around the glass, it’s a feel-good factor.”
T he Closest I am to LOVE is You serves as a prime example of Tracey Emin’s iconic neon series, an integral part of her practice since the 1990s. The use of this medium is inspired from her childhood in Margate, a seaside town where the amusement park and stores constantly shimmer with multicolor lights. Her freeflowing handwritten text framed in a pink heart, alludes to the ongoing themes of love, sex, and desire that her work focuses on. The sincere, confessional, but also ambiguous message she writes displays her unapologetic style. By using the pronoun “you”, which is neither singular or plural, Emin sends out a universal and multifaceted message to any viewer.
A pioneer of the Young British Artists (YBAs), a critically acclaimed group of the 1980s and 1990s’ London scene, Emin is one of the most influential artists of the last thirty years. She expresses her artistic voice through a wide range of mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and film. Representing Great Britain at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, her work has since been repeatedly presented in monumental installations around the world, from I Promise To Love You in t.mes Square to Where I Want to Go with Egon Schiele at The Leopold Museum in 2015 to Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul at the Royal Academy in 2021.
