Do you get asked to judge a lot of these things? Yes, I do get asked to judge a lot of things or be on panels, even book prizes, all kinds of things, yeah. What made you accept this one? | "The idea of spending four days in Liverpool is very appealing to me. That’s definitely one reason why I did it." | | Tracey Emin. |
Because I like Liverpool. If it had been somewhere else, I don’t know if I could afford the time, but because I like Liverpool, it makes it much easier. The idea of spending four days in Liverpool is very appealing to me. That’s definitely one reason why I did it. Also, it’s a nice egalitarian competition because people just send a slide in and we don’t know who made the painting-we don’t know anything about the person, we just look at the image, which is a really fair way of doing things. You think that it’s someone’s work, but it could be a pastiche of someone’s work, so you have to just go on your instincts. And also, so far I haven’t seen any friend’s work or any work that I find instantly recognisable, which is quite surprising given that we’ve seen two-thousand slides or something, yeah.
When you put your famous unmade bed (My Bed) into a competition was that put in anonymously? No, it wasn’t in a competition, I was nominated for the Turner Prize which is completely different. With the Turner Prize you are nominated, there’s only four nominees and then you have an exhibition at the Tate gallery. When I was like maybe 22, 23, I had sent slides off for things but I was trying to remember if I had entered at John Moores and I think I probably did and probably got rejected, definitely. And I’m thinking, if I entered one of my paintings now, would I reject it? I think maybe I would. I don’t know, you just don’t know. And of course, you’re known as such as controversial artist, so I presume you are someone who can take criticism?
 | | Tracey Emin unveils The Roman Standard. |
I think any artist, if you’re sincere and you’re very sensitive to what you do, you can fight back the criticism, but it always hurts, because it’s what you do, it’s something inside you. You don’t think ‘oh I’ll make something and say I’m an artist’ – you are an artist! And if you’ve been doing something for twenty odd years, like I have, and you are constantly get a barrage of abuse about what you do (when actually you are one of the people who is in the top of your field, representing your country on different occasions) and you’re put down for it, I think it’s just spiteful and not very thoughtful of people. And I presume a lot of the criticism was very personally directed at you, rather than at the artistic content of what you were doing? Yeah, people always, always direct the criticism personally at me. I suppose it’s because I’m quite tough and they think I can take it. Well I can take it, and I can really hurl it back really hard but a lot of the time I’m too busy with my work and doing what I do and I think people forget that. People forget about the seriousness of what artist’s do. If we lived in a world without artists, it would be a far poorer place. How important is the John Moores exhibition in relation to other exhibitions in the art world? For painting, it’s really, really important. And the fact that it’s done in this really fair way- to have a competition that is judged like that is extraordinary. There is no nepotism, it’s just clearly, fairly, on the slide that we look at. Only one of us has to say that we like it and then the next time we come back, we see the painting for real. It’s a lot of hard work. What are you working on yourself at the moment? In Winter I had a very successful show in New York, which was my favourite show I’ve ever done. I have a big show in Los Angeles this year in about six months time. So that’s what I’m working on and I’m really looking forward to it. Since you like Liverpool so much, does that mean that you might do a show in Liverpool some time? Yeah, some time in the future but when Liverpool is Capital of Culture in 2008, I’ll be making a large piece of work for the Anglican Cathedral, which I’m really looking forward to. So that follows on from your bird (The Roman Standard) at the Cathedral about 18 months ago? Yes it does actually and I’ve had meetings with the Canon and the Bishop and we’ve had discussions about how to raise funds and what to do. So, i’m looking forward to that, It’s quite a challenge, it’ll be good. Tracey Emin, thank you very much. Cool, thanks! | 
