In Commodity Ecumene, cultural theorist Jeppe Ugelvig offers an engaging exploration of the work of Danish artist Nina Beier. Beier calls attention to the esoteric nature of everyday consumer products, whose symbolic and material lives go largely unexamined, not least by art history.

Drawing on the theories of Roland Barthes and Arjun Appadurai, Ugelvig examines Beier’s use of discarded commodities—from marble countertops to equestrian figurines—and the materialist narratives embedded in them, which prompts a reflection on the global exchange systems that shape and make up our frenzied world of commodities.