TITLE OF ASSIGNMENT:

IS MY BED IS A PIECE OF ART

COURSE CODE/NAME:
FTA421/ PHILOSOPHY OF THE ARTS

LECTURER’S NAME:
DR SANGHAMITRA DALAL

STUDENT’S NAME:
NOR AIMI ATHIRAH BINTI ZUKEFLY (2020983499)

PROGRAM/ GROUP:
FF238/ FTA422M

SUBMISSION DATE:
27th JANUARY 2020
 According to Sherwin (2007) Tracey Emin does not mind sharing her lowest point of
life to the audience through her confessional work titled ‘My Bed’. The controversial
contemporary art titled ‘My Bed’, initially being set up in 1998. It consisted of Tracey
Emin’s dirty bed with stained mattress, a pair of panties soiled with period blood, a
pregnancy test, discarded condoms, crumpled tissues, and a lot of empty vodka bottles. Next
to her bed, there is a small table with cartons of cigarette butts on it. Also, a pile of blue
carpet is placed beside her messy bed.

This dirty laundry of herself which has being exhibited to the public has bring the
controversial out of it as the artist depicts a big mass of sexual throughout ‘My Bed’
installation. Some of the critics criticize it as an art because of the filthy and disgusting
objects which bring disturbing image to the viewers. Following the criticism and
controversial of her artworks, Emin defended herself and the installation by justifying it as a
work of art as it depicts her dark past life history. With all that said, is ‘My Bed’ set up
installation can be classified as art? Can it be acknowledged as an art when the existence or
presentation of the piece itself cannot be accepted by some people or critics?

Tracey Emin, who was born in July 1963, is an artist who has been known for her
confessional artwork. Since 1989, she began to build her carrier as an artist and has created
variety of artworks including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, and neon text. Most
of her artworks was influenced by her wounded life’s history and ‘My Bed’ installation
artwork is included in it.

‘My Bed’ was Emin’s confessional self-portrait of object when she has faced
traumatic relationship breakdown at the age of 35. Meis (n.d.) stated Tracey Emin was having
a lousy life in her council flat in the Waterloo neighborhood of central London. The wound of
breaking-up with her boyfriend has bring her into despair to the point, where she got severe
depression. She continuously living her life frivolously. She smoked, drink and rarely leave
her bed. This went on for days until she has developed serious alcoholism into herself, which
she could not stop from drinking.

When Emin finally recovered from her rock bottom, she looked back at her bed, the
scene where she was struggled with her depression and drunkenness. Pile of junk which
included empty vodka bottles, stained tissues, and cigarette butts which she took in her daily
life were thrown next to her bed. When she grazed upon on it, she notices that her bed has
turn into a work of art which portrayed one of her darkest and wounded moments of her life.

Emin took the whole detritus at the scene and her bed together to Tokyo’s Sagacho
Exhibition Space (Meis, n.d.). The following year, she set up ‘My Bed’ installation at the
Tate, one of England’s most prestigious venues for contemporary art. Later, her artwork has
turn into controversy when ‘My Bed’ has been shortlisted for the 1999 Turner Prize.

It has become media sensation when some of the critics questioned her kind of
artwork. It is just a messy bed installation which is boring and self-absorbed. Some critics
even hated it by declared that piece of artwork as disgusting, filthy, and immoral thing which
cannot recognised as an art. The issue went wild when it was interpreted as a sign of
feminism and art’s demise. People expressed their dissatisfaction by questioning the type of
art criteria of ‘My Bed’ piece involved with when Emin was personally saying her dirty bed
which she stayed drunken and depressed on is a work of art. Nevertheless, despite all of the
criticism received, this artwork which consists of a bed surrounded by dirty mess was sold at
Chrisite’s auction in London for approximately 3.77 million dollars (Begley, 2014). Begley
(2014) stated that Emin’s ‘My Bed’ artwork has raised interest in a world-class art collector
named Charles Saatchi to buy her installation for about two hundred dollars in 2000.

Referring to the question which has being mentioned earlier, can this ‘My
Bed’ set up installation can be classified as art? Can it be acknowledged as an art when the
existence of the piece itself is happened naturally without idea nor effort to create that scene?
Emin said it was a piece of art but what criteria she based on to say like that. What makes a
work of art valuables as a work of art is the evaluation of the aesthetic value which can be
seen in the artwork itself (Is Art necessarily Aesthetic, 2011). Is Art necessarily Aesthetic
(2011) also stated that both definition of art from Monroe C. Beardsley and Malcolm Budd
was strongly link to the aesthetic produced by the work. Naturally, when people attempt to
explain about certain art or describe how they see art, they tend to convey it through the
aestheticism which interacts them to look on it and immersed in the piece of work to
understand better the meaning behind that art. For them, aesthetic is the value for the whole
work to be called as an art. Even for parents who does not learn the real definition of art is
saying his or her child’s wall color pencil drawing is not an art because they could not reflect
the beauty from it. For them, it just a kid’s scribble and it cannot be viewed as an art. These
people have similar thinking about art, assuming it specifically must be related to aesthetic
and art must bring the beauty from it work. Many people appreciated art because of this
element applied in the work of art. However, based on ‘My Bed’ piece of art, most people
and critics opposed it as a work of art as they hardly withdraw the quality of aesthetic value
and beauties from it. This piece of art probably did not have aesthetical beauty at all as it is
emphasize on the messy bed with filthy trash scattered around it. They opposed the bed to be
classified in the work of art as they considered the installation only bring disturbing image
which could not be described in aestheticism scope. However, is the qualification of work of
art being all about beauty? Is it totally acceptable to identify art with the perspective arise
from the mind and sights itself without having deep knowledge in theory of art?

Based on the Mittler (2006) art critics have their own method to identify the aesthetic
qualities of art based on their judgement followed by the intelligent reasons. To critic and
justify the art, someone must have a great knowledge in this scope because art criticism is not
a matter of plain observation or spontaneous expressions of likes or dislikes. Judging a work
of art based on our type of art taste cannot be accepted as the reason was too faint. All the
judgements must come with strong reason which can be accepted by the artist even others.

On the contrary, some specialists in art criticism have despised at ‘My Bed’ piece as
they analysed the art has a sign of feminism through it. Emin was too open to the point where
she shamelessly engages the audiences with issues of sex, alcoholism and so on by preserving
the condom, pregnancy test and lots of vodka bottle in her artwork installation. However, this
art criticism which is appeal as a kind of disapproval of its existence could not justify ‘My
Bed’ installation as something that has no relation with a work of art.

Carroll (1999) stated that the most necessary condition of an art is the resemblance of
real life objects, person or events which is called imitation. The qualities of art are not
identified by the form of its beauties, but a good quality of art actually emerges from its
successful work which being able to evoke or raise emotional responses from the viewers
(Ragans, 2005). All of this defined that a work of art can remind the viewer of what they see
in the real world. Based on this imitationalism concept of theory, ‘My Bed’ undoubtedly can
be defined as a piece of art. The art was made up based on the artist’s dark past event, she had
faced after the relationship breakup. ‘My Bed’ can be characterized as an imitation of her
real-life event and that is the first reason why Emin had a thought that she had created a work
of art in her room. She thought that her messy bed amid with scattered detritus is imitating
her own traumatic personal life. She defies all the societal norms and boundary by
preserving the originality of stained blanket and other mess to highlight the details of her
suffering so viewers can critically feel the emotion and situation of Emin’s when she dealt
with her mental breakdown. Even though the art installation was accompanied with strange
matter and contains disturbing concept to the viewers, yet it still makes them ponder the
emotional sensation behind it. Therefore, it is believed that the artist has successfully make a
self-portrait of object which imitate her own life.

There is another art theory which can define “My Bed’ display as a work of art and
the theory is called as, Institutional Art Theory. x is an artwork in the classificatory sense if
and only if (1) x is an artifact (2) upon which someone acting on behalf of a certain institution
(the artworld) confers the status of being a candidate for appreciation. (Carroll, 1999, p. 277).
Based on the sentence which has been stated earlier, institutional theorist only considers
something as an artifact when it has been exhibited in any art institutional to be viewed by the
audience or critics. Regarding with the first institutional theory, ‘My Bed’ piece is considered
as an artwork as it is already satisfying one of its condition to be displayed in any institutional
art. For instance, ‘My Bed’ installation can be identified as an artifact because it has been set
up in Tate, publicly accessible for the exhibition purpose. The next condition for an object to
considered as an art is, it need to be appreciated by some person or someone who is acting on
behalf of the institutional artwork. Once they accept and appreciated a display as an art, it can
be identified as a piece of art. Precisely, ‘My Bed’ is already fulfilling all the conditions of
this theory. Even though there were lots of harsh criticism and judgement of it, there still
some people who appreciated and understand the artist’s interpretation of her darkest moment
of life which satisfy the second condition of the theories.

Nevertheless, institutional theories of art could not be the main justification for ‘My
Bed’ art piece as the theories itself was lacked in many ways of thinking. In the first point, it
confesses that the art only considered as an art when it being presentable to other. Is it logic?
For instance, someone is painting at home and do not have the opportunity to exhibit their art
in institutional art. Why her or his art cannot be called as an art even it is more appealing and
aesthetic. Why must it be presentable before it can be identified as an artwork? Does by
merely exhibiting an artwork can increase the qualities of the work? It does seem illogical.
The part which raised the qualities of an artwork should be the artist and it is not for the
presentation. And for the second condition, the work must be acceptable by some person
before it can be acknowledged as an art. This one has the same point to the first as it linked
together which interpreting the importance and the condition of something to be called as an
art is because of the audience. Audience has the power to decide the quality of an artwork
cannot be accepted. If ‘My Bed’ exhibition did not receive appreciation as an art, does its
existence continue as a bed, not an art? What classification or power which audience have to
decide the quality of a work of art? Therefore, ‘My Bed’ justification as a work of art cannot
be ultimately defended by this theory as it has too many flaws but merely a backup in the
theory thinking.

Referring to the auction where ‘My Bed’ display which has been sold for 2 hundred
dollars to the world-class art collector Charles Saatchi in 2000 has spark more controversies
in it. The auction price is not making sense as it is clearly overpricing for something which
everyone can easily set up the display by themself at home. Furthermore, Tracey Emin
specifically did not imply any ideas nor attempt in the beginning of ‘My Bed’ display. She
declared it by herself as a piece of art after four days she stayed on the same bed, drinking
alcohol and smoked. How can it be sold for a high price, just for the used bed, plain carpet
and scattered trash? In spite of everything, one single bed that priced around 1500 dollar was
sold at 3.77 million dollars after its declaration as a piece of art, is not worthy at all. Where is
the value in the display which Christie’s auction could see until they decided to put up a
single bed model displayed for million dollars? Is it even fair to the other great artist who has
put great efforts for one single artwork, brainstorming the inspiration of idea to create
something more appealing? Regardless of the dedicating and commitment effort, the fact that
the artist reputation is more necessary for his or her artworks being sold at a high price has
being described in Don Thompson’s book (Vox, 2016). Tracey Emin has gained her
popularity through her many paintings and other artworks which sometimes crossing the line
of societal norms. Currently, her name still raised in the controversial conversation or media
to the point where she has been extremely recognized by the people. This has become the
first factor of her overpricing art. In the meantime, ‘My Bed’ also have been shortlisted in the
prestigious event called Truner Prize which also contributed to the factor of driving up prices.

In conclusion, a work of art is not necessarily about the satisfaction from the personal
feeling and emotion of that work. To identify something as an art or not, someone must
provide critical thinking from every perspective to learn as much as possible the meaning
behind it. Tracey Emin persistently defends her contemporary art titled ‘My Bed’ as a work
of art as she referred to her real-life events. She intelligibly using the theories of art to counter
those suspicions about her messy bed art with filthy things installation. Undoubtedly, to
defend, critic and judging a work of art must be followed by the strong and intelligent reasons
which involving theories of art so it can look like a fact and not just a simply direct emotion.
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