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Art Attack

by | 27th, May 2004

‘FIRST up, a big hearty thanks to all of you who sent in vomit and socks.

Saved for the nation

Our installation is progressing nicely, and we’ll be exhibiting our collective work ‘Vomit In Sock’ all over the steps of the Saatchi Gallery later today.

It’s a shoo-in for the Turner Prize, and will ably fill the void left by the destruction of so many fine modern works of art yesterday.

But the Telegraph says that a far worse disaster was narrowly averted. It was luck, fate, call it what you will that caused works by Tracy Emin to be removed from the now decimated Momart warehouse shortly before the fire.

A spokesman for Emin says that the artist with the gift for turning ordinary objects into ordinary dirty objects removed her stuff from the warehouse recently, thinking the items would be safer in her London studio.

It’s not for us to cast aspersions, but with so much of the competition now out of the way, Emin’s portfolio could be very much in demand, and worth a lot more than it was pre-fire.

So while the cops look for suspects, the Independent hears from the great women herself. And she’s philosophical about things.

“I’m upset,” says Tray, “I’m also upset about those people whose wedding got bombed last week [in Iraq], and people being dug out from under 400ft of mud in the Dominican Republic…the news is bad at the moment.”

It’s good to see that Emin is maintaining a sense of perspective, bracketing her loss of “tent and hut” with those other man-made and natural disasters.

Other artists also tell the Indy what they think. Jake Chapman holds God responsible for the act of destruction (everyone’s a critic), and Dexter Dalwood clasps his hands and says: “It is a tragedy but we can’t bring the works back, and it would have been far worse if a child had died.”

What, worse than losing a few of what Tracy Emin calls her “friends”? Surely not…’



Posted: 27th, May 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink