Tracey Emin: from The Bed to the Venice Bienniale

Tracey Emin, the "bad girl" of BritArt, has joined the "establishment". As one of the YBA's (Young British Artists) who found fame and notoriety after her controversial unmade bed won the Turner Prize in 1999, she claims now to have matured and is a member of the Royal Academy. Her work is being exhibited at the prestigious Venice Bienniale, an international art festival, which beings tomorrow (10th June).

Emin's chart is set for noon as her time of birth is not available. Born on 3.7.1963 in London, she is fast approaching age 44, bringing the Low Point of the 8th House and the whole chart/life, closer. This seems to resonate with the very personal and emotional works that are a part of her exhibition. Named the Abortion Watercolours, they have never been seen in public before.

Emin's chart has a slightly crazy, disjointed appearance. Although its orientation is unlikely to be correct, the image gives an impression of wide-spaced stepping out and a balancing act constantly in operation. With 2 red aspects, 3 green and 4 blue it does not offer a comfortable balance of colour for an artist who needs to work hard in order to perfect and refine. Her motivation, as indicated by the chart shaping, is to be restless, tangential, seeking/searching and following ever-new goals. Put this alongside the one complete Learning triangle that she has and an ongoing learning of how to express her creativity is a strong possibility. The media she works in is diverse and tangential - neons, embroideries, sculptures, drawings.


Her Cancerian Sun is strong by Sign at 10 degrees and reminds me of the homing/nesting needs of a Cancer Sun. Does the cosy, homely feel of her infamous tent, lit from the inside and embroidered with the names of all the men she had slept with, reflect something of this need for a home or base?
( Photo - artwork images)

Although I'm not particularly keen on her work, some of it I do like (yes,I like the tent; no I don't like the bed, which I've seen). There is one piece in particular. In 2005 her bronze sculpture of a small bird on a pole was installed outside Liverpool Cathedral. It is delicate and feminine. How it came into being in described thus on the BBC website:

"The Roman Standard - which features a small bird on top of a four-metre high bronze pole - is a tribute to the city's famous symbol the Liver Bird. The sculpture was commissioned by the BBC as part of their contribution to the art05 festival and Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture in 2008. It stands outside The Oratory, in Upper Duke Street by the Anglican Cathedral. Emin said the sculpture, which cost the BBC £60,000, represents strength and femininity. The bird, which is the size of a sparrow, disappears when viewed from the front and only reappears as the viewer moves left to right."

Emin unveils her bird. Photo-BBC images

Antony Gormley's Ubiquitous Naked Body

British Sculptor Antony Gormley has a new work, called Event Horizon in which statues of his naked body will appear in many locations throughout London between 17th May and 19th August. Each statue is strategically positioned on buildings and rooftops to encourage Londoners and tourists to look up to the horizon.

Photo Jim Dyson/Getty Images on Guardian Unlimited website
Gormley is famous for his works which almost always feature his own naked body. I was curious to see his chart ( 30.8.1950, London). Although there is no time of birth available and the chart is set up for noon, I was fascinated to see this yields an unaspected Saturn in Virgo. It is possible, with a correct time of birth, that the Moon might have moved into aspect with Saturn, but it’s Gormley’s Saturn that I want to focus on in this brief look at his chart.

His motivation is to be flexible and dynamic, able to move on and adapt. His colour balance shows an excess of red aspects, indicating an over-riding emphasis on activity and action. Saturn in an individual’s chart can represent a variety of different things, from fears to an overemphasised adherence to rules, a retentive memory, sound organisation, structure, physical aspects of manifestation and the actual physical body itself. In Gormley’s case, his body is an integral part of his work as an artist and if, in his chart, Saturn is unaspected, then this presents a very interesting theme.

Unaspected planets, which are not linked into the main aspect structure, rely on the environment to give the person a sense of what that particular part of their personality is about. Unaspected planets charge off into the world and eagerly absorb what they find and experience there. The environment stimulates the unaspected planet; the person relies on the feedback it gets in order to get more of a handle on the qualities and energies of the planet for themselves. How appropriate this is for Gormley’s Saturn!



A quote on his work says “25 years work ..... has revitalised the human image through a radical investigation of the body as a place of memory and transformation”. In 1994, when he was 44 and approaching the Low Point of the 8th House (often a significant turning point) he won the Turner Prize for art. He became well-known in 1998 for his “Angel of the North” statue in Gateshead. This is a large and impressive work to view and sits unmissably on a small hill beside a busy main road. (Image from Gateshead gov.website)


His other famous work is “Another Place” on Crosby Beach near Liverpool. This consists of 100 figures of himself stretching out into the sea. At high tide many of them are covered by the sea; at low tide it’s possible to see most of them and to walk amongst them. I’ve done this twice and on each occasion the experience was different because of weather variations and changes in light and visibility.

Photos of Another Place by Barry Hopewell

A final comment on Gormley’s (probably) unaspected Saturn. I heard him interviewed on radio several years ago and he talked about how the casts of his body were made. His wife assists in covering his body with cling film, then plaster is applied and is left to set. During this time he has to remain completely still and breathes through straws inserted in his nostrils. He said that this was the most challenging part of the process, and I can’t imagine a more intense way of living and expressing an unaspected Saturn in perfectionist Virgo than this.

You can find out more about Gormley’s work at www.antonygormley.com and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Gormley

Belle-fille's Recorder

Deviating from my original "mission statement" of discussing the charts of people in the news, I'm taking a look at the chart of my belle-fille, Maylis (22.1.1977, 08.15, Amiens).

The French "belle-fille" and "belle-mere" (that's me!) sounds far nicer than the English daughter/mother-in-law, translating literally as beautiful daughter/mother. I like that!

Maylis's chart looks like an open mouth, eager to taste and take things in, and open ( perhaps sometimes vulnerable?) to meeting other people, and/or situations as well. I choose her chart to look at right now because she has created her own blog, http://maylisandhugh.blogspot.com

and she has an on-line gallery showcasing her photography: www.maylisphotgraphy.com

Maylis's chart shows heaps of talent which is embedded within the 3 Small Talent triangles she has: one in the lower, unconscious, hemisphere of the chart pinned by Mars, Venus & Jupiter, one is pinned by Moon, Mercury and Uranus, and spans Houses 2-9, and the other is in the upper, consious, hemisphere pinned by Saturn, Neptune & Pluto. The presence of a Small Talent Triangle in a chart suggests the person has a still-developing talent or ability. There is inherent potential to be had, but this has to consciously worked at so that the development of the talent is on-going throughout their lifetime. Maylis's talent appears - to me at least! - to be connected to photography and the use of image. Many of her photographs have a special "something" about them, and this I relate to the presence of both Neptune and Saturn (for practically "grounding" and manifesting the images that she sees - she learned to develop them herself too, before digital cameras came along) in the upper Talent triangle.

Look closer and you will see that this upper hemisphere aspect pattern does not stand alone; it is attached to a Search figure, and is actually a part of the larger quadrangular figure called a Recorder. This is described by the Hubers in "Aspect Pattern Astrology" as functioning like a recorder which "stores, among other things, feelings, situations and destinies, and can replay them in such a way that one imagines they are there."

What is interesting is that the Small Talent triangle in the lower half of the chart links directly into the Recorder, via Mars in Capricorn in the 12th House. Mars acts as a fulcrum, energising both upper and lower aspect patterns, and appears as the possible moving force not only in activating the talent embedded within her chart, but also as the driving force for the open mouth image.

Take a look at her on-line gallery, where you can also buy copies of her work, and see for yourself an example of how something that shows up in a chart can be expressed in real life. www. maylisphotography.com