Entertainment

Tracey Emin creating a 20-metre long text work for St Pancras station

The work is a romantic statement and one ‘that reaches out to everybody from Europe arriving into London’.
The work is a romantic statement and one ‘that reaches out to everybody from Europe arriving into London’. The work is a romantic statement and one ‘that reaches out to everybody from Europe arriving into London’.

Artist Tracey Emin – best known for works such as her unmade bed and the tent Everyone I Have Ever Slept With – is creating a new public artwork for St Pancras station.

Emin, 54, said the 20 metre-long text based work was a romantic statement as well as one “that reaches out to everybody from Europe arriving into London”.

I Want My Time With You, 2018, will be suspended above the Grand Terrace and will be Emin’s largest text-based work.

Tracey Emin’s My Bed (Lauren Hurley/PA)
Tracey Emin’s My Bed (Lauren Hurley/PA) Tracey Emin’s My Bed (Lauren Hurley/PA)

It will be unveiled at St Pancras International station in April and will remain there until the end of the year.

The former enfant terrible of the art world said: “I want my time with you. I cannot think of anything more romantic than being met by someone I love at a train station and as they put their arms around me, I hear them say ‘I want my time with you’.

“It is also a statement that reaches out to everybody from Europe arriving into London.”

St Pancras International (Anthony Devlin/PA)
St Pancras International (Anthony Devlin/PA) St Pancras International (Anthony Devlin/PA) (Anthony Devlin/PA Archive/PA Images)

St Pancras International’s Terrace Wires is the station’s public commissioning programme for new artwork.

Its latest commission –  a partnership with the Royal Academy Of Arts –  comes as the station celebrates its 150th anniversary.

The Royal Academy’s artistic director, Tim Marlow, said: “Tracey Emin is an illustrious Royal Academician and one of the most important and influential artists in the world.

“Her work is intense and compelling and blurs the boundaries between the personal and the public and between art and life.

“I can think of no-one better to present to the international audiences of St Pancras in this, the Royal Academy’s 250th anniversary year.”

Wendy Spinks, commercial director at HS1 Ltd – owners of St Pancras International, said: “Emin is an iconic British talent whose work gets people talking about art.

“We look forward to seeing millions of visitors looking up and taking a moment to enjoy and be inspired by exclusive, world-class art at St Pancras International.”