this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. this is work. my loo. can we have a look? yeah, that's all right. yeah. this is you, obviously. yeah, it was one of my drawings. i also wrote on the door because i only wanted people with serious disabilities to be using this loo, and have the wonderful benefit of my drawing. so that's their bonus. and then, also, i drew the cat here. my wild bit of graffiti. yeah, and then, this is the tears area here. what are tears? tracey emin artist residency. so this is the communal area and the kitchen. so are these the studio spaces? these are the studios. you didn't have to have gone to art

school before, you didn't — but you have to be motivated, talented, and you have to know, like, we ask questions like, "what's your favourite artist? "what was the last show you saw? "what's the book you're reading at the moment?" so if someone lives in ghana, for example, obviously they're not going to say, "the show at white cube", or whatever, but they can online. they can say they saw this, they saw that. they can say what they're reading, they can show us the books they've got, things like that. so we want to know how engaged they are with art and how it's happening in their minds as well. how do you find teaching? i like it sometimes, and sometimes it irritates me. art changes the world. art is one of the few things that people can do... ..that doesn't hurt anyone. tracey emin is an icon. from a rebellious star of the art world in the 1990s to receiving the title of dame from king charles, her career spans over three decades. because i'm a woman drawing from being a woman from inside myself, 150 years ago, there never would have been a woman using herself as a muse. it wouldn't have happened like that.

her pieces tackle sex, pain, and the female experience in a deliberately confessional way. but emin�*s life hasn't always been full of awards and royal recognition. 25 years after her famous artwork, my bed, which was nominated for a turner prize, we speak to her about the person behind the artwork, and the legacy she hopes to leave behind. dame tracey emin, it's a pleasure to be here with you — and for you to feature on the bbc�*s list of 100 incredible women. what's your reaction to being on that list? i think if you're just busy and you'rejust getting on with your life, all these accolades or different things that come, it's just always a nice surprise. and actually, just for the record, i don't accept them all. oh, really? what have you turned down? i wouldn't say, would i? oh, come on. yeah, no. not the damehood. no, no.

no? i'm quite pleased with that, yeah. yeah, we'll come back to that. we are in your studios in the coastal town of margate. it's an incredible space. what does it mean to you? well, to have a studio like this, like any artist, you know, it's pretty incredible, because i can work on maybe 20 or 30 paintings at the same time. it gives me lots of time to think about things. i have lots of air and lots of space. it's a separate space from where i live, but it's actually connected to where i live, which is a really spoilt situation for anyone. but the best thing about it is, it's in margate — and margate�*s where i grew up, margate�*s my hometown. and there's a massive lot of creative people and artists coming here now, and living here. and so i love it, it's brilliant. and also, like, it's so fantastic. you can paint, and thenjust go down to the beach and go for a swim. i'm really lucky to have this space. i know i am. and you mentioned working on 20 paintings at the same time — is that how you work? and have you always worked like that, working on different things at the same time? that sounds, like,

really over the... it sounds like a woman with arms like a windmill or something. but, erm, no, what it is is that i can have a canvas out for six months, ijust do one wash on it, and ijust leave it for six months, and then i'm working on another one, and then i come in and thenjust do some mad, chaotic drawing on the wash. then i might write something on another canvas, then i might actually completely paint over another one. so what it is, is, when you have space and time, painting, a lot of it, people think is about just the activity of painting, but it's not. it's about waiting and looking, and letting the painting come to the surface, letting the painting do its own thing, letting the painting collect its own energy. you've lived in different places in your lifetime, but margate is the place you call home. what are yourfondest memories from here? my fondest memory is, of course, going to be involved with my mum — because my mum lived here for so long — but my fondest memories are now, the ones that i'm living in. the memories i've got as a childhood

— from my childhood, swimming and being in the sea — i've got those same memories now as an adult. we're still swimming in the sea and we're still puerile and childlike, and it feels like a free space. and i think my child... i was very unhappy as a child. so it's really good to come back to margate, wash away those memories and bring back new ones for myself. erm, yourfather — you've talked about, you know, fond memories, but also a difficult childhood — wasn't around much when you were growing up. his heritage was turkish cypriot. erm, how much of an impact did that have on you — or influence, i should say, has that had on you? well, my dad being cypriot is a massive influence. my dad actually wasn't very turkish at all, even though he had a turkish passport, turkish cypriot. my dad's grandfather was from the sudan — well, from nubia — and he was a slave in the ottoman empire. he gained his freedom in cyprus, and they were known as the black turks. and my dad — that was my dad's grandfather —

and then when my dad came to england in 1948, and then a lot of his cypriot friends, the greek cypriots, were in margate, and they said, "enver, come to margate. "it's just like cyprus. "it's just like the mediterranean. " and they all had these — all these greeks have these amazing coffee bars and everything, greek cypriots. and so my dad came to margate and opened a hotel. and that's how we ended up in margate. my mum and dad weren't married. my dad was married to his turkish wife. he had two families. and so i grew up only seeing my dad a couple of times a week, or maybe every now and then. and it—it�*s... ..something which ijust accepted and lived with. i think, coming from a mixed race, mixed background, mixed — you know, half my family were muslims as well — you know, there's a big thing, there's lots going on. and leaving home at 15, i left home at 15. my life — a lot of artists, you have

to get into university to do art. and a lot of artists have got their a—levels, they've got their middle—class background, they've got their a—levels, they've got their upper—class background, they've got their a—levels, they got their university. it wasn't like that for me. it was a very different story. so if i'm going to tell a story about being a woman who's successful, i'm going to tell the story of, when people say "no" to you, you don't listen to them. you just do what you have to do, and do what you want to do. and in the education system in this country, a lot of it is set up on a class basis. so if you come from a very working—class background, or you speak how i do, you're not expected to do well. you're not expected to achieve. and if you've got, like, the willpower and determination and you — from the age of 12, i knew i wanted to be an artist. and here i am. because i didn't let anybody stop me, and i didn't listen to anybody,

and i did what i believed in, what i wanted to do, because i had a vocation. art is a vocation in life. it's not...it�*s not a job, it's not a career. it's something you do. it's not to do with money. it's something you feel you have to do, and you can't stop yourself from doing it. and because it's all i've ever done — luckily, i wasn't that academic at school — so all i've ever done is paint and draw and write, actually. how did you know that? like, in your teenage years, how did you know art was the thing you wanted to do? because i left school at 13. if you don't go to school, the social services will come and get you. right. and you had to go to — i had to go to school three days a week. so when i went to school, the art teachers just said, "0h, let herjust sit here at the table, making art". so i did that two days a week at school and then the other day, i did the english and maths, and special pe — because i was a good runner. and from doing... at the age of 14 to 15, doing art two days a week,

it meant that it was drummed into my mind, it was part of me. and then the art teachers, mrjay and mrs morris, kept telling me how good i was — whereas before, everybody, apart from running, everybody kept telling me how bad i was. bad for smoking, bad for getting to school late, bad for this, bad for shoplifting, bad for whatever. no—one was telling me i was good at anything. and then, suddenly, i was being told that i was good at art, and that stayed with me. in your memoir, strangeland, there are disturbing references to being sexually assaulted when you were 13 years old. how has that period of your life contributed to the art that you make now? well, i wasn't sexually assaulted when i was 13, i was raped. that's one thing. but i was also, after that, having teenage — i was having sex with men that were 25, 22 years old. you know, it wasn't like a fumble behind a bus shed. it wasn't like somebody grabbed my breast or something. i was having full—blown sex at the age of 13 and 14, which is — with men —

which is on another level, it's on another league. so, how that affected me, i think, was in a kind of positive — if i say in a positive way — i—i slept with everyone i wanted to in margate and decided to go to london when i was 15, and that's what i did. in going to london when i was 15, i met a lot of incredibly creative people. i stayed in a squat in warren street. i met people like boy george, lots of fashion designers, musicians, different — really well—known people now, it would be like name—dropping, it would be incredible. but i was only 15—16, and they sort of inspired me. they were all at saint martins, the royal college of art, and i thought, "oh, why can't i do that"? and you speak so openly about your life, the life of a woman who loves, who enjoys sex, but also suffers having sex. and you express your pain so candidly — experiences many women have and can relate to — have you ever regretted being so open about those intimate

things that have happened to you? i did say once, "the worst rape of all is to rape yourself", so when you publicly, like, you know, tear yourself apart and open yourself up. but i've been doing it all my life. and i think the only time i didn't do it, which i was very, very quiet about, was when i had cancer, a very bad cancer. i was very quiet about that while i — because i thought i was going to die, so i thought i didn't want to make a big fuss about it. in my life, i'm very open and candid about things, because also, i think holding secrets, holding heaviness, holding weight is very unhealthy, and not very good for the mind. and when i was younger, people thought i made very narcissistic work, and very self—indulgent and very vain work, because it was like, "me, me, me". but now, now times have changed, people realise that making work about rape, abortion, teenage sex, all of these subjects are really important,

because they have to be discussed. and right now, what's happening in the world, they really need to be discussed. so anybody that thought i was ranting on about abortion 30 years ago, look what's happening now. you've been very open about your personal life throughout your career, very open in this interview. you're a confessional artist, but is there... are there things that you keep secret? or are you completely open? no, i haven't got any secrets at all. none. none whatsoever. but it's up to people to ask me things. yeah. someone asks me a question, i'll give them an answer. but if people don't ask... which awards and accolades have you turned down? they laugh. good one, nice one. thanks, tina. tracey emin was part of a group celebrated as the young british artists in the 1990s — the so—called ybas. and whilst their work was often seen as provocative and controversial,

emin was frequently singled out for the severest criticism by the press. the british press actually really hurt me, because i think if they really thought my work was that bad, just don't say anything. just cut me out of your pages. give your pages to someone else who you want to triumph. but, following a battle with cancer in 2020, emin returned to her roots in margate, and is now focused on projects which reshape her sense of purpose, as well as her idea of her own legacy too. you were known as the "enfant terrible" of the art world — i mean, now, obviously, national treasure. erm, but did that title — was it limiting for you? i mean, did it botheryou? did it help you? no, it did not help me at all. and i think, if anything, it put a lot of people off, you know, like in america, americansjust, like, wouldn't have any of it. theyjust, like, rolled their eyes, kind of thing. and museums, you know... ..why would a museum give

a wild child a show? you know, someone who's not taking themselves — appears not to be taking themselves seriously? why would they? you know, the drinking, the rock—and—rollness, how i looked as well — that was another thing — people didn't like it, that i looked sexy and i looked good. why not? what... ? nobody talks aboutjeff koons, in his...with his tight balls and his nice pink suit or whatever. you know, jeff's really, like, a cool person. you know, men can do it, men can have that swagger. but if a woman comes along — i think, in one review, it said, "she walked in with her breasts out "looking like moll flanders". moll flanders is a thief, you know? it's like, what. . . ? i'm an artist. what was it like, baring so much of your soul to the world? when i made my tent, 1995 — remember, people didn't necessarily take it seriously. there was all those cartoons, you know, saying, "tom" — sort of like a, you know, a little pointy tent saying, "tom,

dick and harry", or whatever. and everyone just thought it was about sex, or some boasting prowess of how many people i'd slept with. and i said, when i made that tent, each name that i sewed on that tent was like carving out tombstones or gravestones. and the whole point of the tent was that people were supposed to go into the tent, read who i'd slept with, and then come out and think about who they'd slept with, and why, and what level of intimacy, and different things. because if the tent was around now, it would have a completely different meaning, people would understand it a lot more, and people wouldn't see it as such a fierce... provocative. ..provocative thing. they would understand it, they would get it. and then, the bed, of course, your bed... yeah. ..the famous artwork that had you nominated for the prestigious turner prize — i can't believe it's been 25 years. i mean, how do you see that piece after all this time? i love it, i love the bed. i still stand by it, still defend it, still love it. i think also, now it's become — that, the bed itself,

has become a national treasure of sorts. you know, the bed is something which i'm happy to show in other exhibitions, in museums and things if i can, but it can only be out for a certain amount of time, daylight, because all the sheets and everything's so fragile. it's like a time capsule of a woman from the �*90s. there's things on it now which just don't even exist any more. and i'm sure someone who's 20 will be looking at it, going, "what is that"? a lot of your work focuses on the bodily form. how would you describe your relationship with your own body now? i'd like to swear and say, "i hate it", right? but on the other hand, i'm 61, and i'm lucky to be here. and for someone who's gone through such an incredible amount of surgery — i had a seven—and—a—half—hour surgery, i had... 12 people. yeah, most of my body parts were removed, like, i had half my vagina removed, my bladder removed, my urethra, and my whole full hysterectomy, part of my bowel removed,

and made into a stoma. i mean, it's hardcore. my surgeon said, "it doesn't get much bigger than that", really. i think the problems i have, looking in a mirror, i've always had. i don't think it's a new thing. i think there's a lot of women that sufferfrom this. and from when i was young i was really thin, you know, and ifind now being normal difficult. but i know it's keeping me alive and keeping me well. so if i was to suddenly be really thin or something, then i've got big problems, because last time i was really thin, i had six months to live. and that's not a good look, is it? if you draw a line from the young, provocative artist smashing her own paintings to — you were made a royal academician by the royal academy of art, so a group of elite artists, basically — how do you see that trajectory? even more so, now i'm a trustee at the british museum. ..museum, yeah, and that. the royal academy, for years, has always been — was very much, in a strange way,

a very male institution. that's significant in itself, you're only one of, what, two women appointed as professor at the academy. is that right? yeah. yeah, in 236 years, or something like that. i know. i mean, does that feel like the ultimate seal of approval from the art world? no. not that you need it. no, the ultimate seal of approval from the art world is the 90,000 people that just went to see my last show. that's the ultimate seal. the turin shroud is not the turin shroud if no—one goes to see it. it's just a bit of old cloth. my paintings, or my art, when people go to see them, young people, old people, mixture of people... i'm an artist. to be an artist, part of that is a response from other people looking at my work. and that is the seal of approval, that my art has a reason for existing. would you consider yourself to be part of that elite now? i'm — being a dame... being a dame, dame tracey.

sounds good. yeah, so, a bit of name—dropping — the first person to call me and congratulate me was eltonjohn. so i was in bed and he facetimed me and i said, "yeah, i was thinking about you", and i said to him, "you know, there's not many really working—class people "that get the honour of being a sir or a dame, or whatever". and i said, "but you sound all right, sir elton". and he said to me, "you've gotta admit, tracey, "it's an oxymoron". isaid, "yeah, dame tracey" — it's just so brilliant. it'sjust like, it should inspire people, you know, that, like, if you work hard enough and you're really... it's not... the accolade of being a dame is for the work that i've done. and that's why it feels good. if you were to start out as an artist today, as a young woman, do you think it would have been easier for you in any way? well, yes and no. sadly, it's almost impossible to go to art school or university

or college if you come from an impoverished background. it is impossible. i think now, it's much better for women doing art, and in the arts, and i think it's much betterfor people from black and from different ethnic cultures doing art. when i was at art school, when i was at the royal college of art doing painting, there was only one black person there, which is kind of shocking, isn't it? and also, there's very few working—class people because, to get to that level, you've got to get your a—levels, you've got to have your support from your family. imagine, even if you have got a—levels and you come from a very working—class family, they don't want you to go off and be an artist. they want you to go off and be a banker or a doctor or something. so, i think — and now, with the state of our education in schools, and the lack of it, and the fact that the governments haven't — i say governments — haven't treated it as an issue of importance. i think that, you know, this country — creativity,

design, art, everything — every time there's a recession, it's the arts and creativity that bring britain up into the fruition, from whether it's cool britannia, the sixties, whatever it is. and the fact that the governments haven't understood how important the arts are for this country is tragic. i've done my bit, i canjust paint now and just rest. and where i'd like to put all my energy and everything is helping other people achieve and make art, and other people change things, and change their own destinies through art. that's what i really am focusing on right now, because i'm quite happy with everything. is that what you'd like your legacy to be? i think legacy is a strange word, but if i'd like to continue living — like, my lifeline is so long, it goes all the way around, so it's like i'm going to live almost forever, live to at least 110, apparently. so what i'd like is the memory so what i'd like is the memory of me to live through — of me to live through —

with art, and people... with art, and people... this place, when i die, this place, when i die, will be a museum. will be a museum. the house that i'm doing the house that i'm doing at the moment will be an art museum at the moment will be an art museum for other people's art. for other people's art. i've got the art school that i've i've got the art school that i've done, i've got the tears, done, i've got the tears, i've got the foundation. i've got the foundation. because when i thought because when i thought i was going to die, i thought, "oh, i was going to die, i thought, "oh, my god, am ijust going to be... my god, am ijust going to be... "i don't want to be remembered as "i don't want to be remembered as just being "a 1990s mediocre artist. just being "a1990s mediocre artist. i've got to do something. i've got to do something. "i've got to make things better." "i've got to make things better." and so that's all i've been and so that's all i've been doing since the cancer, doing since the cancer, and it's good for me too. you have a bag, but they don't and it's good for me too. your pain is clearly on display your pain is clearly on display in your latest exhibition, in your latest exhibition, i followed you to the end, i followed you to the end, on display at the white cube. on display at the white cube. and there's that one installation and there's that one installation documenting your pulsing stoma. documenting your pulsing stoma. why was it important for you — why was it important for you — clearly it was — to include clearly it was — to include that in your exhibition? that in your exhibition? i think that people don't i think that people don't understand what a stoma is. a stoma is part of your intestines that's twisted and made into a conduit for the urine to come out. so i thought...

people just know that understand what a stoma is.

looking back at your life, do you think resilience was something you needed more of in your youth, or later in life? i think, being a woman right now, we need as much resilience as we can have. and now, in america, women are losing their rights daily, daily, daily. women in iran are suffering. women in afghanistan are suffering. and for being women, for no other reason butjust being female. and i think now is the time where there has to be a greater unity and a greater resilience, and a greaterfight for women injust achieving everything on a daily level. would you say there's been a time where resilience has saved you? yeah, 100%. i always say this thing. a lot of women have ships and boats named after them, but very few women own them. i own my own ship. dame tracey emin, thank you so much for speaking to bbc 100 women. thank you.

hello there. you'll be pleased to hear this really cold spell of weather is at an end. now, if i show you the temperature anomaly chart, any time you see oranges and reds, that's temperatures above average. so it's getting really mild

for scotland and northern ireland — temperaturesjumping up, the snow will be melting. for england and wales, temperatures generally getting back to where they should be for the middle ofjanuary. and quite a contrast really early in the morning. we've got the mild air in place for scotland and northern ireland. still a bit chilly, though, for england and wales — any mist and fog patches will be lifting and most places will be dry and bright with some sunshine. but we have more cloud in the north and that's bringing this rain down across scotland, northern ireland, eventually into northern england and north wales. and we've got the stronger south to south westerly winds for scotland and northern ireland — that's why temperatures could reach 12 or 13 degrees. for england and wales, still a little bit chilly, temperatures five or six degrees, but it is an improvement on what we've seen of late. the colder air is here more towards continental europe. most of us are in mild air, the winds coming in from the atlantic around the top of that area of high pressure. but as that's always going to be

close to the south of the uk, here, it will be a bit chilly at times. we could well have some mist and fog to start with on tuesday in southern england. 0n the whole, it's going to be dry, quite cloudy, the best of any breaks in the cloud where we've got a bit of shelter, so eastern scotland and the north east of england seeing some sunshine. and those temperatures again reaching 12, maybe 13 degrees in northern ireland and back, perhaps, into double figures across england and wales, so temperatures rising here. but that area of high pressure is not going away at all. it's going to shift a little bit further north, pushing that weather front towards the north west of scotland, and with lighter winds overnight and some clear skies for a while across england and wales, we could start grey and misty with some areas of fog that could linger in the southeast through much of the day. otherwise, it brightens up with some sunshine and that weather front brings some rain into the north west of scotland, where again, temperatures are going to be double figures and typically 8—10 celsius across england and wales. but where we have some clear skies overnight, again, we could see temperatures falling close to freezing in england and wales. nothing to worry about, though, further north for scotland and northern ireland — here the temperatures always going to be higher.

but what a change this week, it's going to be much milder, a lot of dry weather. still some chilly, misty sort of weather at times across some southern parts of the uk.

president biden, who has a week left to achieve his goal of securing a ceasefire in gaza, calls the israeli prime minister to discuss the conflict. plus — donald trump wants greenland. we hearfrom a danish lawmaker who says they don't want to be american, and from some greenlanders who say they don't want to be danish either. hello, i'm carl nasman. fire crews in los angeles have made some progress in their battle to contain several fires still burning in the area, but the two largest are still raging largely unchecked. the fires have burned through 40,000 acres and 12,000 buildings — killing at least 16 people. 16 others are missing. officials say high winds are forecast and the threat of more blazes is "very high". at least 20 people have been arrested for looting, including two who officials say posed as firefighters.

california's governor gavin newsom says 111,000 people