Tracey Emin Bittersweet Venus

Venus Sweet & Bittersweet

tracey emin she lay down deep beneath the sea 2012

Something I noted with relish (and British seaside fish and chips) was an article in The Observer newspaper on 27^th May 2012 about the British artist Tracey Emin. The article, published in the Venus Retrograde period, reports that Emin returned to the seaside town of Margate, a place of her childhood where she is exhibiting 'She Lay Down Deep Beneath The Sea' in the new Turner Contemporary gallery. She also carried the Olympic torch through the town and cut the ribbon at the opening of a sweet shop.

Note with gentle pleasure all the Venus imagery replete within these actions – namely 
Art, Woman, Seashore, Sweets and all things sugary. With the Venus retrograde symbolism also in place such as the return to a place that holds nostalgia and memories for her that have been very painful and haunts her work. This could have been a potentially tormented homecoming for "once mad Trace from Margate" coming with bad memories and a bad reputation. Add the fact that Tracey Emin has her Venus in the sign of Gemini, with such keen focus on retrograde Venus in Gemini at the moment, this turned out to be a public demonstration of obvious Venus joy not simply retrospection.
Interesting to note so much 'sour' was also expressed in reaction to the sweetness with comments about the Observer article ranging from 'what a stomach-Turner', ' "returns to Margate" stay there', 'for a moment I thought she had opened a sweat shop and it seems very likely as she is a Tory'.

There is more to the Venus connection in this story. Tracey Emin has a Turkish Cypriot father, who was already married but split his time between two families. Cyprus is said to be the place of the mythic birth of Venus (see Venus Come Out Of Your Shell  ahh the bitter sweetness……. 

I am writing this when the Sun has just moved into the sign of Cancer with Venus in Gemini, exactly the same combination as….Tracy Emin has in her chart now that is really sweet.

posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs