Art and the Home

Our homes contain us but they are also within us. They can represent places to be ourselves to recollect childhood memories or to withdraw into adult spaces of intimacy; they can be sites for developing rituals family relationships and acting out cultural expectations. Like the personal social and cultural elements out of which they are constructed homes can be not only comforting but threatening too. The home is a rich theme running through post-war western art and it continues to engage contemporary artists today - yet it has been the subject of relatively little critical writing. <i>Art and the Home: Comfort Alienation and the Everyday</i>is the first single-authored up-to-date book on the subject. Imogen Racz provides a theme-led discussion about how the physical experience of the dwelling space and the psychological complexities of the domestic are manifested in art focusing mainly on sculpture installation and object-based practice; discussing the work and ideas of artists as diverse as Louise Bourgeois Gordon Matta-Clark George Segal and Cornelia Parker within their artistic and cultural contexts.