Time: 6:30 - 7:30pm Venue: Geography building, Room 126
Houses, homes, huts and domestic themes have become ubiquitous in installation art over the last few decades. Gill Perry explores some of the mythical, metaphorical, aesthetic and social concerns that have inspired artists to engage with these everyday themes. She focuses on the work of three contemporary artists (Agnès Varda, Tracey Emin and Michael Landy) for whom (as she argues) ‘home’ is rich in contradictory, playful and nomadic meanings, evoking both local and transnational associations. Exploring issues of gender, play and the imaginative and experimental potential of ‘homely’ structures in the gallery space, she argues that these forms of contemporary art can invite a compelling critique of ‘everyday life’.
Gill Perry is Professor of Art History at the Open University and chair of The Open Arts Archive. She has curated several exhibitions (including Crystal World, Royal Society, 2011 and The First Actresses, NPG, 2011) and her books include: Women Artists and the Parisian Avant-Garde, MUP, 1995; Gender and Art, ed., Yale UP, 1999; Difference and Excess in Contemporary Art, ed., Blackwells, 2003; Themes in Contemporary Art, co-ed with Paul Wood; Spectacular Flirtations: Viewing the Actress in British Art 1768-1820, Yale UP, 2007, The First Actresses, NPG, 2011-12; Playing at Home: The House in Contemporary Art, Reaktion Books, 2013. Her forthcoming book is titled Playing – with Michael Landy, Ridinghouse, 2015.
A reception will follow the lecture.
Ticket InformationThis event is free, but you must book tickets online in advance if you wish to attend. Please follow the instructions to make a booking. You will then be emailed an e-ticket and you should bring this with you on the day.