Is Anal Sex Legal 1998

Curator: Tracey Emin’s neon sign simply titled, "Is Anal Sex Legal?" makes quite an impression in the Tate collection. Editor: It certainly does. A visceral punch of pink. The scrawled, almost desperate handwriting style, contrasts so sharply with the manufactured, glowing medium. It's a fascinating tension. Curator: Absolutely. Neon, typically associated with commercial signage, here illuminates a question that probes societal anxieties surrounding sex and law. The very question itself becomes an icon. Editor: And the materiality is key. The industrial fabrication, the readily available technology, makes this provocative question almost mundane, accessible. It’s not some high-minded philosophical inquiry, but a query for the masses. Curator: Yes, the raw, confessional tone we often see in Emin’s work is echoed here, prompting us to confront our own internalized judgments. It becomes a symbol of repressed desires and legal boundaries. Editor: I find it so powerful that Emin uses neon. The everyday turned subversive, the cheap elevated. And a question that we can’t stop contemplating. Curator: A charged question indeed. Editor: One that we’re still trying to answer, it seems.