‘Folk’ is an unruly term. It has always resisted attempts to homogenise or sanitise it and continues to challenge modern values such as rationality, originality, progress, value and skill. In this exciting new book, Desdemona McCann argues that folk can be classed as a specific genre within British visual culture. She contends that it offers a heterogeneous approach to storytelling and that its primary objective is to make collective memories and diverse forms of knowledge visible.

McCann’s work on collecting, performance and folk landscapes consider the historical and cultural reference points that contribute to the folk aesthetic and its mobilisation within contemporary arts practice. By placing the art firmly within the context of the everyday, she claims that folk recasts the artist as a member of society rather than the art world, leading her to question the hierarchical distinctions between artistic disciplines. Instead, she looks for provocative new ways to understand this artisanal form of creativity.