For me Emin and Bourgeois both have a shock factor to their work, I was shocked when I first encountered their work as I felt slightly uncomfortable, a bit like I was invading someones privacy. Perhaps their works are shocking because they make the very private very public.
Emin's 'Tent' is floor based and is a tight enclosed space; it is very womb like - when crawling into and out of the tent you have go on your hands and knees and this position also increases the womb analogy. Crawling makes it feel almost like we are submissive to Emin's work. It is also 'childlike' to crawl on our knees so when entering Emin's 'tent' it is like we are reverting back to childhood and in to remembering 'all the people Emin has ever slept with'.
Bourgeois' work is also a tight enclosed space, however this time, this piece is on show not to enter, just to observe. '7 in bed' involves seven sewn fabric bodies locked together in a bed surrounded by a glass box. This piece reminds me of the womb like state of Emin's tent because of the way the bodies are huddled together in an enclosed space. Bourgeois' work also is a reminder to the audience of the artist's childhood experiences and in an online evaluation of her work, she talks about Sigmund Freud and his ''Primal Scene'' when the child sees the parents having sex for the first time.
This links with Emin's work as both artists evoke similar meanings within their work. The are both playing with language in the titles as Emin's 'everyone i have ever slept with' refers not to 'slept with' in a sexual sense but in a more general sense, including her twin brother (who she shared a womb with), and her childhood teddy bear.
Emin's and Bourgeois' work both explode the boundaries between Fine art and Art textiles. They both use form to present content. They also both use textile processes and both reveal very personal aspects of their lives -aspects which art allows these two artists to make public for our consideration.
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