Publications

2016
Double Act: Art and Comedy
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
2014
Manifesta 8
The European Biennial of Contemporary Art. Region of Murcia in Dialogue with North Africa.
Silvana Editoriale
9788836616978
2008
EV+A 2008
Gandon Editions
2008
Variable Capital
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
2006
Pop Trauma
Void

Bibliography

2020
Why the Silence Around Class and the Art World Needs to Be Broken
Mike Pinnington
https://elephant.art/class-visual-arts-barriers-need-broken/
2016
Q&A with Artist Group Common Culture
Aesthetica
http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/q-and-a-common-culture/
2016
Double Act: Art and Comedy
Laura Robertson
Art Monthly
2016
Nothing Happens, Twice: Artists Explore the Absurdity of Life
Beth Bramich
Art Monthly
2016
Manifesta 8
Sam Thorne
Frieze
2010
Manifesta 8
Theresa Gleadowe
Art Monthly
2009
Variable Capital
Chris Clarke
Photography and Culture
2008
Manifesta 8
Colin Perry
Art Monthly
1999
Common Culture
Dave Beech
Art Monthly
1999
Common Culture
Michael Bracewell
Frieze

Lectures/conferences

2019
Throwing voices: the commodification of culture, from art biennials to celebrity
Goldsmiths' University
2019
‘Sit Down’ A dialogue between artists, writers and thinkers on the power of ‘funniness’ within institutional critique and art history.
Central Saint Martins London
2015
Jason Rhodes: The fetishism of Commodities and the Secrets Thereof
The Baltic, Gateshead
2015
On the Use of Commodity in Art as a Form of Social Critique, Politics and Humour
The University of Kent, Canterbury
2011
Trashing Performance
Toynbee theatre, London. UK
2008
Damaged Goods— In Conversation with Carol Mavor and Michael Bracewell
Bluecoat Liverpool
2008
Transgressions
University of Wales , Newport, Newport School of Art, Media and Design
2005
Common Culture in Conversation with Robert Clarke
The Royal Pump Rooms, Leamington Spa
1999
International— Provincial
East International, Norwich
1999
Strange Bedfellows? Contemporary Art and British Popular Culture
Cornerhouse, Manchester

Awards

2009
SAFLE commission
2000
Northwest Arts