Mark Dion

Mark Dion (1961 New Bedford (Massachusetts) 4 new "books" for Schildbach Xylotheque. The Schildbach Xylotheque of the Ottoneum (Natural History Museum) in Kassel (Hessen, Germany). A collection created by Carl Schildbach from 1771 to 1799. Every "book" is made by the wood of the tree that is documented inside it with wax three-dimensional replicas of tree significant elements. Since 2012 the Xylotheque is shown inside the display designed by Mark Dion for dOCUMENTA (13).

Mark Dion (born August 28, 1961) is an American conceptual artist best known for his use of scientific presentations in his installations. His work examines the manner in which prevalent ideologies and institutions influence our understanding of history, knowledge and the natural world. The job of the artist, according to him, is to "go against the grain of dominant culture, to challenge perception and convention". By locating the roots of environmental politics and public policy in the construction of knowledge about nature, Dion questions the objectivity and authoritative role of the scientific voice in contemporary society, tracking how pseudo-science, social agendas and ideology creep into public discourse and knowledge production. Some of his well known works include Neukom Vivarium (2006), a permanent outdoor installation and learning lab for the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, Washington.

Early life and education Dion was born on August 28, 1961, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to a working-class family. He spent his early childhood in New Bedford before relocating to Fairhaven, Massachusetts, where he was mostly raised. Dion credits the museums and historical architecture in both towns, such as the New Bedford Whaling Museum, in helping to spark his interests. There, he was encouraged by faculty to utilize interdisciplinary approaches that would allow him to unify his wide-ranging interests, and he began creating installations inspired by his passion for research and collecting.

Dion received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Hartford School of Art in 1986. As part of Tate Modern's re-opening programme, Dion and a team of volunteers combed the shore of the river at Bankside in front of Tate Modern, and at Millbank, opposite Tate Britain, in search of artifacts and ephemeral buried beneath the mud and gravel of its beaches. A wide variety of objects and fragments were uncovered, ranging from clay pipes, oyster shells and cattle teeth to plastic toys and shoes. The more unusual finds included a bottle containing a letter in Arabic script, pieces of Bartmann jugs and a fragment of human shinbone. "Archaeologists tents" were then set up on the lawn outside Tate Britain, where each item was meticulously cleaned and identified by professionals including Museum of London staff, Thames River Police, and ecologists.

First shown at the Tate Gallery as an Art Now installation between October 1999 and January 2000, the finds for Tate Thames Dig are presented according to location in a double-sided old-fashioned mahogany cabinet, alongside photographs of the beachcombers and tidal flow charts. There are also five "treasure chests" which contain larger items, but which are not part of this work. The only differentiation is a geographical one, the two sites retaining their individual identities. The lack of historical categorisation suggests a subversion of standard museological practice. Viewers are free to create their own associations, to trace histories across time, not necessarily in a linear direction.

New England Digs (2001) In 2001, assisted by students at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design, Dion conducted excavations in a garbage heap on the edge of Seekonk River, a burned-down 19th century waterfront site along the Narragansett Bay, in New Bedford, and a dump alongside the edge of a cemetery in Brockton, Massachusetts. The group along with Dion unearthed and collected a plethora of items and contemporary artifacts, all of which were cleaned, categorized and complied into an exhibition named the New England Digs. But in Dion's style, historically significant finds are democratically mingled with refuse. "There is a long history of using trash in modern art", Dion has stated, "but here objects are allowed to exist as what they are or were, without metaphor, noninterpretive, not even archaeological".

Rescue Archeology: A Project for the Museum of Modern Art (2004) In the year 2000, the Museum of Modern Art's sculpture garden underwent an extensive rebuilding project. The garden was disassembled and the land was excavated to a depth of . Dion lead the series of archaeological digs in the garden, recovering a pillar and fragments of the limestone foundation from the nine-story townhouse. A month later he scavenged again in the garden, as well as in the hollowed-out brownstones adjoining the Museum to the west and in the newly-demolished Dorset Hotel.

A series of six fireplace mantels salvaged from the brownstones adjacent to the Museum and fully restored by the Dion, are intended to refer to the living room of Abby and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., renowned for its warmth and intimacy. A custom-made cabinet presents objects cleaned and classified not by scientific criteria but by the artist's own logic; visitors are invited to peruse its contents and appreciate its odd organizational paradigms. Finally, a functional laboratory and a group of photographs recording Dion's behind-the-scenes archaeological “performance”, as he calls it, reveal an interest in experimentation and process that balances his investment in the finished product. Dion utilized a fallen Western Hemlock tree as the nurse log inside an -long greenhouse. The tree “inhabits an art system”, according to commentary by the Seattle Art Museum, with insects, fungi, lichen, and other plants serving as the "art system" in question. By virtue of being organic, Neukom Vivarium is an ever-evolving piece; Mushrooms in a given part of the art piece may be replaced with moss and bugs the very next. Visitors are provided with magnifying glasses and field guides if they want to investigate a creature that interests them.

Miami Art Museum (2006) In 2006, Mark Dion conducted a large installation at the South Florida Wildlife Rescue Unit that focused on the Everglades and human attempts to control the South Florida ecosystem.

Interweaving the diverse disciplines of art, science, ecology, history, and archeology, Dion's project consists of three parts, corresponding to the three major periods of Everglades history: exploration (late 1700s – mid 1800s); exploitation (mid-1800s – early 20th century); and preservation and restoration (mid-20th century – the present).

The largest component of the installation features a facsimile of a vehicle and equipment belonging to an imaginary agency that rushes into vulnerable ecosystems to save threatened plants and animals: the South Florida Wildlife Rescue Unit.

The Undisciplined Collector at Brandeis University (2015) This permanent installation by Mark Dion may be entered by visitors. The exhibition catalog is visible on the table, illuminated by a lamp. In 2015, Mark Dion completed his permanent installation, The Undisciplined Collector, in a small ground-floor gallery inside the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. The room-sized space is a recreation of a 1961-style residential "den", a wunderkammer or time capsule filled with authentic period artifacts gleaned from various Brandeis collections. The year 1961 was the birth year of both the artist and the museum, and some of the exhibits reflect news coverage of the latter's debut.

Visitors may enter the installation to examine the artifacts at close range, and to relax on the retro-replica sofa while reading. The furnishings were custom-built to the artist's specifications, and reflect the Mid-century modern style of the time.

The Trouble with Jellyfish at Le Laboratoire (2015) The Trouble with Jellyfish was a temporary exhibition at Le Laboratoire in Cambridge, Massachusetts that focused on jellyfish and their role in past and currently-changing ecologies. The show included a mock Victorian classroom and a mock bakery storefront featuring foods made with jellyfish. A centerpiece was a large aquarium tank containing hundreds of live jellyfish, undulating gently while suspended in space.

Solo exhibitions Some of Dion's solo exhibitions include:

Other inclusions in exhibitions and museums In 2012, Dion's work was included in dOCUMENTA 13, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev in Kassel, Germany. His work has also been exhibited at:

MoMA PS1, Guggenheim Bilbao, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Tate Gallery, and Museum of Modern Art.

Recent years

Dion resides with his wife, artist Dana Sherwood, in Copake, New York, and continues to conduct his works worldwide. and a documentary episode of the PBS series Art:21.

In 2015, Dion visited Colgate University to conduct workshops and lectures with students and faculty.

Awards and nominations

Guggenheim Fellowship (2019) The Smithsonian American Art Museum's Lucida Art Award (2008) The Joan Mitchell Foundation Award (2007)

Ninth annual Larry Aldrich Foundation Award (2001)

Honorary degrees

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters (PhD) from the Wagner Free Institute of Science in Philadelphia (2015) Honorary Fellowship, Falmouth University (2014)

Honorary doctorate in Philosophy, University of Hartford (2003)