Tracey Emin: For You
Title: For You
Artist: Tracey Emin (b. 1963, British)
Location: West Window, Liverpool Cathedral (C of E)
Date: 2008
Winner of the ACE Award for Art in a Religious Context 2009.
This work, in pink neon, reads ‘I felt you and I knew you loved me’. It is situated above the west doors of the cathedral.
‘Coloured glass, light and text have been the cornerstone of art in Christian worship for centuries and this work combines all three but as pink neon. The artist’s own feminine handwriting – a rare element of Christian iconography – reads “I Felt You And I Knew You Loved Me”. Its material and the fact that it is not functional nor built into the fabric of the building might suggest that it is temporary... The permanence of the Liverpool commission is significant and indicates risk-taking with conviction on the part of the Cathedral. The material and the message are ambiguous – by which I mean they could exist with equal weight in a secular setting – but set above the red sandstone of the west door the work carries a very simple and direct message, intimate as well as contemplative.’ – Gill Hedley (reporting for the ACE Award for Art in a Religious Context)
Tracey Emin (b. 1963, British) lives and works in London having trained at Maidstone College of art and the Royal College of Art, London. Her work is frequently highly personal and confessional and ranges between traditional modes of craft production to painting, sculpture and installation.
Further Information
Medium: Neon installation
Permanent display
See Emin’s For You on the Ecclesiart map here.
Commissioner: The Dean and Chapter of Liverpool Cathedral
Nominated by: Tim Marlow (Director of Exhibitions at White Cube, London)
Other contemporary/modern works of art in Liverpool Cathedral: The Welcoming Christ (Elizabeth Frink), Painting of Crucifixion (Gary Bunt), Icon of the Trinity Painting (Cristi Paslaru), The Outraged Christ (Charles Lutyens), LJMU Cross sculpture (JRM Robertson), The Good Samaritan (Adrian Wisznieski), The Baby Christ Child (Don MacKinlay), Josephine Butler windows, At the End ... A Beginning (Richard Harrison), Risen Christ Maquette (Elizabeth Frink), Calvary (John Ronald Craigie Aitchison), The Holy Family (Josefina Vasconcello), Painting of Liverpool Cathedral (Hannah Thompson), House Built Upon Rock (Adrian Wisznieski), cross icon painting (Ludmila Pawlowska), Christi Paslaru pieces in Chapel of The Holy Spirit, The Redemption (Arthur Dooley and Anne McTavish), memorial bust of Noel Chavasse (Terry McDonald), The Prodigal Son (Christopher Le Brun), The Good Samaritan (Christopher Le Brun), Praise (Peter Vaillant)
Related A&C journal article(s): Article by Catherine Pickstock - Art and Christianity 56, Winter 2008 (p. 13).