Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-222) and index.

Introduction: The traffic and the ruins of art -- part I. 'Everything that surrounds' art, politics, and theories of the everyday -- 1. The boundaries of art -- 2. Globalization and art of the everyday -- 3. A brief history of the everyday -- 4. The politics of art -- 5. Trompe L'Oeil : under the signs of everything -- part II. The elastic metaphor, cultural identity, place and photography -- 6. Camera consciousness and the politics of representation -- 7. The constitution of cultural identity -- 8. Cultures on the move and the changing self -- 9. Tracing the contours of cultural identity -- 10. The art of passing in cultural identity -- 11. Flags in the landscape -- 12. The secret little bay -- part III. The long journey of small acts -- 13. The production of spaces in art -- 14. Finding the way home -- 15. The return to international waters -- 16. The double language of mimesis -- 17. Traces left in cities -- Conclusion: Writing, art, place.