I Want My Time With You (2017)
Tracey Emin (b.1963)
I Want My Time With You (2017)
LED light sculpture installation
H (?) x W 2000 x D (?) cm
St. Pancras International Station
Even on a bright day it’s impossible to miss the glowing pink neon that greets millions of annual Eurostar passengers as they arrive at London’s St. Pancras station. Tracey Emin’s “I want my time with you” is 20 metres wide, which means you can legibly read the phrase all the way from the back of the platform, giving those who aren’t buried in their smartphones or struggling with luggage plenty of opportunity to read and reflect on it’s meaning.
Was it intended for one of Emin’s former lovers or a wish to a future beau? The work was hung halfway between the 2016 Brexit referendum and the UK’s scheduled 2020 withdrawal from the EU, so at the time many journalists wrote that the sign was a anti-Brexit love letter to arriving Europeans. It’s a theory the artist openly entertained in interviews, though she’s gone on record to state that her intention was for the work to allow a wide interpretation.
It’s for lovers returning from a dirty weekend in Paris and families coming back from an overpriced Euro Disney vacation. It’s a warm London welcome for everyone regardless of culture, race or persuasion, which can’t be said of Paul Dent’s nine-metre tall ‘The Meeting Place’ that stands beneath it. More commonly referred to as ‘The Lovers’, it’s a distinctly traditional depiction of a heterosexual embrace that has always reminded me of Brief Encounter, a movie that should never be watched by anyone who’s struggling in a relationship.
Emin’s work was the sixth installation as part of St. Pancras Wires, an ambitious exhibition programme that unofficially commenced when giant Olympic rings were hung in the station for London 2012. Emin’s neon — which is actually LED, one of the many health & safety concerns the artist had to navigate throughout the process of creating what is still the largest work in her neon handwriting series — has been hanging in place since 2018. It’s clearly popular, as is Emin now, whose early-career enfant terrible profile has largely been negated. Since this work was hung Emin has gone through multiple near-death health scares, been awarded a DBE by the Crown, named in BBCs 100 Women list, and by many accounts single-handedly rejuvenated Margate. Maybe that’s why the station did not reply to my inquiries about how long they plan to extend it’s hang. Then again, given the size of this work where else could you put it?
I’ve always been mixed about Emin’s art, in particular the neons. Maybe it’s because they have such broad appeal. They’re a bit too twee, a bit too patronising, a bit too mass market “greeting card sentiment”, and the artist agrees. In a recent article Emin was quoted as stating “the neons are my bread and butter, so never hate them because you never know what’s going to happen in your life.” and in this instance, I don’t. Emin’s giant neon is one of my favourite works, but the reason is highly personal.
“I want my time with you” was installed in spring 2018. I can’t remember if my girlfriend and I specifically went out of our way to see it or if the glowing pink just happened to distract us as we were randomly passing through St. Pancras, but you can see it in a series of selfies that we snapped on the viewing platform. We’re huddled together in the photos, but not to stay warm. It was June, we’re wearing sunglasses and summery clothes and we’re standing a bit too close, the way young couples in love embrace any opportunity for contact. Our pose was also practical. It left plenty of room for Emin’s full phrase to be clearly visible in the composition.
Whenever I see Emin’s neon I’m reminded of my feelings from that weekend, when two busy professionals escaped their hectic day jobs to aimlessly explore the city they love and everything it had to offer. Together.
That’s why I like it.
We’ll always have Paris London.
Additional reading:
Previously, on Why I Like It:
Jan — Unearthed (2019), Adam Halls
Dec — Cow Parade (1998-present)
Nov — The Shadow (2024), Albano Hernández