Mark Dion
1
Sea Life, 2012
mixed media (vitrine, pet toys, toys, sex toys, car cleaners)
196,4 x 154,3 x 69,3 cm
2
The Ethnographer at Home, 2012
mixed media (plastic tree, desk, glas, carafe, easel, basket chair, chest, photographs)
320 x 310 x 345 cm
3
Bone coral (phantom museum), 2011
mixed media (papermache, glass, pedestal)
126 x 101,5 x 35,5 cm
4
A Bakers Dozen for the Goose Tower, 2012
mixed media (objects, postcards, pedestal)
175 x 200 x 75 cm
5
Natural History, 2012
tincast elements, metal box
48,5 x 50 x 46 cm
6
Octogon Cabinet of Confectionary Wonders, 2012
mixed media (vitrine, stuffed animals, shells, rasin, insects, glass)
173 x 147 x 147 cm
7
Banished, 2012
mixed media (artifical giant mouse, painted Necrophorus, wooden slat)
63 x 160 x 100 cm
8
Hunting Blind - The Slob, 2008
Diverse materials and objects
250 x 230 x 850 cm
9
Hunting Blind - The Dandy - Rococo, 2008
Diverse materials and objects
280 x 230 x 350 cm
10
Hunting Blind – The Librarian, 2008
Diverse materials and objects
160 x 120 x 200 cm
11
Exhibition in process, 2001
mixed media
204 x 80 x 45 cm
12
The Tar Museum - Mallard, 2006
Wooden shipping crate, tar, plastic duck decoy, paper-mâché, plants
83 x 46 x 170 cm
13
The Tar Museum - Goose, 2006
Wooden shipping crate, tar, plastic goose decoy, paper-mâché, plants
83 x 46 x 174 cm
14
The Tar Museum - Memo, 2006
Wooden shipping crate, tar, taxidermy form, paper-mâché, plants
83 x 46 x 161 cm
15
The Tar Museum - Cave Bear, 2006
Wooden shipping crate, tar, resin cast, ceramics, keys, knife, clock, books, tools, trap, wheel
121,5 x 178 x 221,5 cm
16
The Tar Museum, 2006
Wood, glass, trophies
335 x 440 x 200 cm
17
Nursery, 2007
Perambulator, 4 plants
120 x 53 x 150 cm
18
Park : Mobile Wilderness Unit, 2001
mixed media
290 x 170 x 380 cm
19
Skeleton Cabinet, 2006
Plastic skeleton cast, tar, wooden shipping crate
189 x 85 x 64 cm
20
The Museum in Ruins, 2006
mixed media
164 x 70 x 293,5 cm
21
Mobile Wilderness Unit - Wolf, 2006
mixed media
274 x 148 x 294 cm
22
Department of cryptozoology, 2001
mixed media
275 x 400 x 70 cm
23
Game Bird Group (Tar and Feathers), 2006
mixed media (taxidermied birds, tree, tar)
370 x 270 x 160 cm
Mark Dion
Since the mid 1980s, Mark Dion has been intensely concerned with the history of the way we engage with nature, and studies in particular representations of nature in the sciences as symptomatic of ideological discourses. He also has often engaged with the situation of nature in urban space, and in recent years in archaeologically-oriented work has treated the complex structures of a historiography. His visually powerful works, rich in material, inspire the beholder to question their convictions, wishes, and ideas when it comes to the social category of “nature.” He often works with institutions based in the natural sciences, but believes that science has no monopoly on definitions of nature. He understands museums of natural history as places where on the one hand scientific findings are presented to a broad public, while at time providing insights into the fixations of natural givens that do not correspond to the course of nature. Art does not illustrate science, philosophy, or questions of belief, but allows us to grasp the abstractions present in these disciplines.
Mark Dion, born 1961 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, lives and works in New York. His works are included in numerous collections such as Metropolitain Museum of Art, New York, Tate Gallery, London, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, MUMOK Vienna and Israel Museum of Art, Jerusalem. Mark Dion participated in documenta 13 (2012) and in the Sydney Biennial (2008). Recently his works were shown in solo exhibitions at Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018), ICA Boston, Georg Kargl BOX, Vienna (2017), Marta Herford (2015/2016), Academy of Fine Arts, Dresden (2014), Museum Het Domein, Sittard (2013), Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna (2012, 2006, 2001), Oceanographic Museum of Monaco (2011), The Natural History Museum, London (2007).