Art and the Home: Comfort, Alienation and the Everyday [Paperback]

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 Everydayis 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.Imogen Raczis Senior Lecturer at Coventry University. Her publications include Contemporary Crafts, (2009), as well as many articles related to sculpture and object-based art.

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#C