ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers what current evidence exists for the size and nature of the audience for contemporary art in Britain. It discusses homes and possessions as ‘active agents in the construction of taste and social relations’. The book also discusses the professional culture of contemporary art as part of a diverse context of image making and argues that it limits its own influence by continuing to marginalize valid needs that people have for images in their homes. It argues that existing priorities should be extended to embrace mass-production, reproduction and retail outlets beyond the gallery in making the work of contemporary artists more widely available for use in ways not currently endorsed as having anything to do with art. The book surveys research on the home mainly from the perspective of ethnographic studies, but with reference to a number of other approaches.
