Tracey Emin’s artwork at London’s St Pancras station sends powerful Brexit message

Artist Tracey Emin is addressing Brexit with her latest public artwork, suspended from the ceiling of London’s St Pancras Station. The 20-metre (65-foot) neon-pink message reading “I want my time with you” was unveiled at the terminus for Eurostar trains between London and continental Europe.

Emin said it was inspired by the romance of being met at the end of a train journey, but is also “a great subliminal message” about Britain’s upcoming exit from the European Union. “I am utterly ashamed of the fact that our tiny island is leaving Europe, so I want my time with Europe,” she said. “I want to be part of Europe and a lot of people in Britain do.”

One of the Young British Artists who burst onto the art scene in the 1990s, the 54-year-old Emin is renowned for her provocative and confessional art. Her most famous works include a recreation of her dishevelled bed and an appliqued tent entitled Everyone I Have Ever Slept With.

She also created a series of works involving brightly lit messages — most of them heartfelt, some of them rude. Emin said her latest piece, which will hang at the station until the end of the year, would provide “this great, beautiful pink glow at night as the trains come in”.

“It is just going to make people feel really sexy, really warm, and it is going to make London look really raunchy, and really happening,” she said. “So that is another good thing when people arrive in from Europe. They are going to realise that some of us are warm and loving and have a great sense of humour as well.”

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