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. Art and the Home: Comfort, Alienation and the Everyday 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.
Acknowledgements Illustrations List Introduction Chapter 1 Enclosure Inside/Outside The Home and Self Minimalism and Phenomenology Enclosure, Myths and Phenomenology Homes, Transitional Spaces Wallpaper Michael Landy, Semi-detached Chapter 2 Doors and Windows Boundaries Post-war Breaks in the Wall – The Creative Everyday Doors and Windows – Formal Matters Doors – Document and Memory Windows and Doors – The Poetic Everyday Windows – Sight Denied Chapter 3 Female Space Background Women and Confinement Women Artists and Their Experiences Womanhouse Womanhouse – Decorative Techniques and Critical Debates Womanhouse – Female Roles After Womanhouse Chapter 4 Alienation Dada, Surrealism and Freud Domestic Objects Louise Bourgeois – Home and Memory Mona Hatoum – Exile and the Contemporary Uncanny Gregor Schneider – Unhomely Spaces Chapter 5 The Unmade House The Organic Home and the Ruin Establishment Power Art Outside the System Gordon Matta-Clark – Splitting Rachel Whiteread – the Personal and Political Steffi Klenz – Nummianus Chapter 6 Withdrawal Ilya Kabakov – Fantasy Spaces Childhood Dreams Adult Withdrawal – The Bed Shock Chapter 7 Objects, Sentiment and Memory Objects and Identity The Commonplace Display Vessels Perceived Value Notes Bibiography Index
Imogen Racz is Senior Lecturer at Coventry University. Her publications include Contemporary Crafts, (2009), as well as many articles related to sculpture and object-based art.
