Burning Down the House

Overview volume of contemporary art practices examining problems, beliefs and contradictions that the family as an institution embodies.

The family is a rare topic in contemporary art. While feminist artists have thematized their roles as women, caretakers and mothers, a critical engagement with the topic of the family, one that goes beyond mere representation, has largely been absent. Burning Down the House: Rethinking Family untangles some of the crucial problems, beliefs and contradictions that the family as an institution embodies. It takes a close, critical view of family constructs across geographies, histories, and scale, providing a rare overview of contemporary art practices connected to this topic, while problematizing the notion of the family and complicating its stereotypical, bourgeois representation, which has informed our visual culture for centuries.