I Dream of Sleep

Tracey Emin's art is confessional, manifested in a rich variety of media and unprecedented in its frankness and unsparing self-examination. Her work is often highly confrontational, but retains an air of lightness through its honesty, good humor, self-awareness, poeticism, and ultimate innocence. Although Emin relentlessly interrogates the minutiae of her own life, she simultaneously addresses issues that are common to all, such as sexuality, mortality, and the search for meaning in life.

Part of the artist's series of neon pieces initiated in 1996, Dream of Sleep presents this paradoxical yet potentially relatable statement, in which the longing of rest is expressed in a medium, the neon sign, inherently associated with nocturnal leisure. In addition, the dream of sleep can also be read as an act of resistance against the 24/7 exploitation of bodies and minds under late capitalism, which understands individual time as a mere resource.

(Text written by TBA21 and used as wall label in the exhibition "Encounters", MNTB, Madrid, 2023)