Distinguish between overturned mattress and the work of Tracey Emin? (4,5)
I believe the answer is:
tell apart
'distinguish' is the definition.
(I know that distinguish can be written as tell apart)
'between overturned mattress and the work of tracey emin?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
'work' could be 'part' (part is a kind of work) and 'part' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ella' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tell apart that I've seen before include "Rattle pal about - distinguish one from the other" , "See difference between" .)