Published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name held at The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, October 4, 2017-January 1, 2018. Includes bibliographical references (pages 202-206) and index.
Contents:
Director's foreword / Jill Medvedow -- Into the field / Ruth Erickson -- Mark Dion's tropical ecology / James Nisbet -- Wonders of the sea / Andrea Barrett -- Some notes toward a manifesto for artists working with or about the living world / Mark Dion -- Of collectivities and emergent possibilities : Mildred's Lane / Petra Lange-Berndt -- On culture in action / mark Dion in conversation with Mary Jane Jacob -- Selected projects. Reshuffling the university and gestures of hope / Colleen J. Sheehy. Cabinet of curiosities, 2001 ; The museum and the marvelous / Lucy Bradnock. Bureau of the Center for the Study of Surrealism and its Legacy, 2005 ; A scrapbook, a journal, a time capsule / Sarah Suzuki. Fragments of travel, exploration and adventure, 2007 ; A naturalist's return / Kathrinne Duffy. Travels of William Bartram -- reconsidered, 2008 ; A bunker of one's own / Denise Markonish. The octagon room, 2008 ; Encountering Daedalus : a letter to Mark Dion / Sarina Basta. Oceanomania : souvenirs of mysterious seas -- from The expedition to the aquarium, 2011. Extranaturel, 2016 ; The strenuous life / Lisa G. Corrin. Phantoms of the Clark Expedition, 2012 ; Lost worlds (In the jungle with Mark Dion) / Alastair Gordon. Dr. Fairchild's Kampong laboratory, 2016 -- Selections from the exhibition. Scala naturae, 1994 ; Killers killed, 1994-2007 ; Les nécrophores -- l'enterrement (Hommage à Jean-Henri Fabre), 1997 ; The Ladies' Field Club of New York, 1999 ; South Florida Wildlife Rescue Unit : mobile laboratory, 2006 ; Den, 2012 ; Harbingers of the fifth season, 2014 ; Memory Box, 2016 -- Exhibition chronology / compiled by Jessica Hong -- Checklist of the exhibition.
Summary:
A comprehensive survey of American artist Mark Dion, examining three decades of his critically engaged practice interrogating our relationship with nature The first book in two decades to consider the entire oeuvre of Mark Dion (b. 1961), this volume examines thirty years of the American artist's pioneering inquiries into how we collect, interpret, and display nature. Part of a generation of artists expanding institutional critique in the 1990s, Dion adopted the methods of the archaeologist or the natural history museum, juxtaposing natural objects, taxidermy, books, and more to reorganize the natural and the manmade in poetic, witty ways. These sculptures, installations, and interventions offer novel approaches to questioning institutional power, which he sees as connected to the control and representation of nature. Generously illustrated, this publication introduces new insights and features more than seventy-five artworks.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.