Tracey Emin: My whole life changed after cancer surgery

Tracey Emin said her “whole life changed” as a result of her cancer surgery, adding that her body is “weird” now.

The 58-year-old artist was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2020 after discovering a tumor while working on a painting of a malignant lump.

During the operation, many of her reproductive organs were removed and she was fitted with an ostomy bag.

Her new nude collection for a show called A Journey To Death is a response to the cancer and resulting surgery, and she told The Guardian of a work called Don’t Tell Me About This Kind of Pain: “It’s distorted and twisted, but I just went through something pretty awful.

“You know, if a robot hadn’t done the cutting and sewing, my body would have had scars all over it. I have no scars, just holes.

“My body is weird now. It looks strange down here – but scars don’t pull me together, at least on the outside. Inside I am

“The recovery is still ongoing. It will be two years in July. Recovery takes a long time.”

She added: “It all comes out in these works – the pain that I’m in – because I get a lot of pain.

“It’s all just to do with mobility, muscles, everything – no lymph nodes, all those things. And also the sexual pain. I had half of my vagina cut away. It’s big business. If a guy had half of his cock cut off, he would soon start complaining about it.

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“I also had to have my uterus removed and my ovaries, a full hysterectomy. is that sexy No of course not. Everything has changed for me. My whole life has changed.”

Emin believes she had a premonition prior to her diagnosis when her whole world suddenly went dark and she saw an apparition.

She told the newspaper: “It was during the first lockdown, just before the pots were hit for the NHS. It was light, I was sitting in my living room waiting to look out the window and the TV was on – and suddenly it went off, the room went completely dark and this apparition was coming toward me. I said, ‘Oh, damn it!’”