Homage to Edvard Munch and All My Dead Children

This installation is a reaction to the 1994 theft of Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream (1893) from the National Gallery in Oslo. The group of radical anti-abortionists who committed the crime offered to return the work if national television agreed to broadcast The Silent Scream, a film depicting the abortion of a human foetus. Tracey Emin, who has made public that she has terminated pregnancy on more than one occasion, responded to this incident by creating a film of her own. Here, we find the artist curled up in the foetal position at the end of a wooden pier. The camera glides over the water, which is glistening in the sun. All that can be heard is the gentle lapping of the waves. This paradisiacal scene is then interrupted by a bloodcurdling shriek. The installation, which also comprises three Polaroids with film stills as well as a handwritten text, reveals the artist’s inner conflicts and counts as a very personal examination of this subject matter.