In I Want My Time With You, Tracey Emin articulates longing in its most direct and unguarded form. Rendered in soft pink neon and written in her unmistakable cursive hand, the phrase stretches horizontally across the wall like a personal plea made public. The work captures a fleeting emotional truth—simple in language, yet profound in resonance.

Emin’s neon practice, which she began in the 1990s, has become one of the defining elements of her oeuvre. By adopting the visual language of commercial signage and bending it toward confession, she transforms neon from a tool of advertisement into a vehicle for vulnerability. Her handwriting, preserved in glass tubing, maintains the immediacy of a private note. The slight irregularities of line and rhythm resist mechanical perfection, reinforcing authenticity and emotional urgency.

The statement “I Want My Time With You” centres not on possession but on presence. Time—ephemeral, finite, irretrievable—becomes the true subject of the work. In Emin’s broader practice, themes of love, abandonment, desire, and mortality frequently intersect. Here, the request is not simply romantic; it carries an undercurrent of impermanence. To want time with someone is to acknowledge that time can be lost. The phrase suggests both devotion and vulnerability, the courage to ask for closeness in a world defined by transience.

The scale of the piece—nearly three metres wide—amplifies its emotional weight. Despite its modest height, the elongated format allows the script to unfold like a line of poetry across the wall. The pink neon emits a warm, enveloping glow, casting a halo that subtly alters the surrounding space. As with many of Emin’s neons, the work becomes environmental as well as textual, bathing the viewer in the emotional atmosphere of the statement.

Issued in a small edition of three with two artist’s proofs, the work retains the intimacy and rarity characteristic of Emin’s most sought-after neon sculptures. Each example preserves the sense of personal address, as though the message were written for a single recipient.

In I Want My Time With You, Emin once again transforms language into light and longing into form. The work stands as a luminous reminder that love is measured not in grand gestures, but in shared moments—fragile, finite, and fiercely desired.