Art putting childhood in the frame
EXHIBITION: EMIN AND PERRY STAR AT SCULPTURE PARK
WORK BY Tracey Emin and Grayson Perry, exploring both artists’ troubled childhoods, has gone on display at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Why I never became a dancer
was the first film that Emin ever made and explores her teenage years in Margate having left school at 13.
The film is being shown alongside Perry’s ceramic Mad Kid’s Bedroom Wall Pot as part of the Tread Softly exhibition. His abusive childhood at the hands of his stepfather is well-documented and life was further complicated when he realised he was a transvestite.
He said: “I would often retreat to the garden shed and a fantasy world. It was imperative that I got into a proper art college because it was my ticket out of Essex and this piece is about escaping my roots through art.”
Tread Softly, which runs until September, features 30 works of sculpture, film, photography and sound installation. Selected largely from the Arts Council Collection, it sits alongside specially commissioned poems by the Scottish poet Jackie Kay.
Jill Constantine, the head of the Arts Council Collection, said: “We are delighted to be working with Yorkshire Sculpture Park to present Tread Softly, which brings together an intriguing compilation of works.
“The exhibition presents an array of different perspectives on childhood in Britain. It explores themes from play to family relationships, complex topics which continue to fascinate and inspire British artists working today.”