The joke has a healthy disrespect for structures and categories. When allied with art it can become a very unruly and volatile impulse. This well-illustrated book, provides a lively, original and humorous discussion of comic artworks by both established and emerging artists, including Paul McCarthy, Pilvi Takala, BANK, Keith Coventry, David Sherry, Olav Westphalen, Jonathan Monk, Michael Smith, John Smith, Adrian Paci, Thomas Geiger, Erica Eyres, Sarah Lucas, Jo Spence, Gemma Marmalade, Richard Wentworth, Julian Rosefeldt, Peter Finnemore, Peter Land, Mel Brimfield, Common Culture, Maurice Doherty, Erwin Wurm, Richard Prince, Bruce Nauman, Bill Woodrow, Richard Hughes, Bas Jan Ader, Kara Hearn, Joachim Schmid, Alex Bag and Cory Arcangel.

Bluecoat

The European Biennial of Contemporary Art. Region of Murcia in Dialogue with North Africa.

Silvana Editoriale

9788836616978

Gandon Editions

Artists' fascination with pop culture and commodity aesthetics has led to the development of some of the most significant and popular art of the last fifty years. Yet while much of this art has concerned itself with the celebration of commodities as objects of desire, relatively little attention has been given to the human cost underpinning such cultures of excess. Variable Capital counters this trend and examines the way in which contemporary artists have critically responded to the seductive allure of globalised commodity consumption. Taking its title from a term Karl Marx used to explain how value is produced in a commodity, the book charts the strategies artists have employed to redirect attention toward the apparently invisible processes of exploitation and alienation underlying production.

Liverpool University Press

Void

David Campbell and Mark Durden

Mike Pinnington

Aesthetica

Laura Robertson

Beth Bramich

Sam Thorne

Theresa Gleadowe

Chris Clarke

Colin Perry

Dave Beech

Michael Bracewell

Robert Clark

Goldsmiths' University

Central Saint Martins London

The Baltic, Gateshead

The University of Kent, Canterbury

Toynbee theatre, London. UK

Bluecoat Liverpool

University of Wales , Newport, Newport School of Art, Media and Design

The Royal Pump Rooms, Leamington Spa

East International, Norwich

Cornerhouse, Manchester