"It's not the way I want to Die" Tracey Emin

 "It's Not the Way I Want To Die" Tracey Emin 2005

In this sculpture made of reclaimed metal and timber Emin re creates part of a track of a roller coaster.  Using a rickety structure to communicate danger, death and with a life affirming title.

A structure can be a solid refuge or shelter. The state of the structure can also indicate danger, age , weariness.

Emin's work is often autobiographical and highly personal and in this case its a rollercoaster from her home, seaside town of Margate. Here she is using a structure to convey intense feelings and experiences.

In this case I think a roller coaster is quite self explanatory as a metaphor or as a real risk. Life, pleasure, thrill is all balanced by elements of risk. Thinking about the experience of height, of putting your trust into the structure that stands between yourself and a fall to the earth, both physically and emotionally.

I chose this as inspiration for the project as the physical similarities to the viaduct structure in Ilkeston. Two structures with opposing functions; one for fun one for function.

The size and scale of a work also creates a massive impact on how its perceived, a small scale model of a roller coaster track would just feel like a model, but to have this huge structure, communicates big feelings.

One of the many ways the use of a physical structure within an art work to communicate emotion.