Tracey Emin
During the 1980s, Childish was an influence on the artist Tracey Emin, whom he met in 1982, after his expulsion from the painting department at St Martin's School of Art. Emin was a fashion student at Medway College of Design. Emin and Childish were a couple until 1986-87, Emin selling his poetry books for his small press Hangman Books. In 1995 she was interviewed in the Minky Manky show catalogue by Carl Freedman, who asked her, "Which person do you think has had the greatest influence on your life?" She replied:
- Uhmm... It's not a person really. It was more a time, going to Maidstone College of Art, hanging around with Billy Childish, living by the River Medway.
Her famous "tent" Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995 (1995) was first exhibited in the show, and Childish's name was displayed prominently in it. The tent was destroyed in a fire at the Momart warehouse, in Leyton, east London, in 2004.
Childish has said "My relationship with Tracey Emin finished in 1987 – 21 years ago, to be exact. Whilst I like and respect Tracey, and wish her well, the relationship is not significant in respect of my current life, and therefore I choose not to discuss it."
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