ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the home as the site, for most people in Britain, of their primary engagement with images and as a neglected focus for the wider dissemination of contemporary art. The general term ‘images’ is helpful because it, too, is non-evaluative and facilitates discussion of artefacts which do not have the status of art along with those that have. With some allowances, it is also capable of covering a range of formats – paintings, sculptures and photographs for example—and that is how it will usually be deployed. Images have effect. In addition to being of aesthetic significance, they offer selective accounts of and/or metaphors for human experience, imaginings, ideas and beliefs. The nature of images in homes is related to what is available in the market place. Contemporary art is a small part of a universe of images providing for the needs of British people in their homes.
