Mark Dion
Born 1961, New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Lives and works in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania

In many of his works, Dion re-creates the categorization and exhibition practices of museums. In this piece, his concern is to explore how a subjective understanding of nature becomes established as history by a particular group of people at a particular time. Artist and naturalist Alexander Wilson (1766–1813) is the protagonist in Dion’s installation, which purposely blurs the line between artwork and museum exhibit. Dion re-presents bird specimens from Carnegie Museum of Natural History and decorative arts objects from Carnegie Museum of Art as both authentic museum objects and as props in an environment he imagined for Wilson. The result is a fictive—or personal—view of history that reflects on the subjective and sometimes arbitrary nature of scientific methodology.

Mark Dion, Alexander Wilson-Studio, 1999, wooden structure, mixed media, 8 x 12 x 9ft. (installation view)

Mark Dion, Alexander Wilson-Studio, 1999, wooden structure, mixed media, 8 x 12 x 9ft. (installation view detail)

Mark Dion, Alexander Wilson-Studio, 1999, wooden structure, mixed media, 8 x 12 x 9ft. (installation view detail)

Mark Dion responds to questions in the Artists of the Week section of this site.

Since 1985 Mark Dion’s work has been presented in many international exhibitions, including Cocido y Crudo, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (1994); Zeichen und Wunder and Platzwechsel, Kunsthalle Zürich (1995); Hybrids, De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam, and Die Berchenbarkeit der Welt, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (1996); Sculpture. Projects in Münster 1997, Westfälisches Landesmuseum, and (naturally artificial), Nordic Pavilion, 47th Venice Biennale (1997); and The Natural World, Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia (1998Š99). Dion has also had solo shows at American Fine Arts, Co., New York (1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998); De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam (1996); Kunstverein, Hamburg, and Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus (1997); and Deutsches Museum, Bonn, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California (1998).

Education
1982-84 School of Visual Arts, New York

1985 Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program, New York

1985 University of Hartford, Connecticut

Selected Further Reading
Dion, Mark. Archaeology. London: Black Dog Publishing, 1999. Texts by Alex Coles, Emi Fontana, Robert Williams, Jonathan Cotton, and Colin Renfrew.

Corrin, Lisa Graziose, Miwon Kwon, Norman Bryson, and John Berger. Mark Dion. London: Phaidon, 1997.

Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England; Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany; and De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam. Natural History and Other Fictions: An Exhibition by Mark Dion (1997). Exhibition catalogue, texts by John Leslie, Jason Simon, Saskia Bos, Jackie McAllister, Simon Morrissey, Helen Molesworth, Erhard Schüppelz, Miwon Kwon, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, and Mark Dion.

Dion, Mark, and Alexis Rockman, eds. Concrete Jungle. New York: Juno Books, 1996.

Dion, Mark. Die Wunderkammer. Munich: K-Raum Daxer, 1993. Texts by Karola Grässlin, Miwon Kwon, Carolyn Gray Anderson, and Helen Molesworth.