Stephanie Fry Senior Portfolio 2011-2012: Artist Entry #1: Mark Dion

Mark Dion spoke as a visiting artist my Freshman year. I found his lecture to be very interesting and intriguing. He spoke of his Curiosity Cabinets and the processes in which he arrived to that point. Dion works by exploring a particular site and then collecting artifacts from it and creating a display (Curiosity Cabinets) to show the objects in. Exploration in particular is something I enjoy doing in my work. I have worked by choosing a specific location or setting up a specific perimeter within which to photograph. I also find the site-specificity in his work interesting, choosing a particular place and then creating a work around that place, influenced by it, surrounded by it.

Bio:

“Mark Dion was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1961. He received a BFA (1986) and an honorary doctorate (2003) from the University of Hartford School of Art, Connecticut. Dion’s work examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge, and the natural world. The job of the artist, he says, is to go against the grain of dominant culture, to challenge perception and convention. Appropriating archaeological and other scientific methods of collecting, ordering, and exhibiting objects, Dion creates works that question the distinctions between ‘objective’ (‘rational’) scientific methods and ‘subjective’ (‘irrational’) influences. The artist’s spectacular and often fantastical curiosity cabinets, modeled on Wunderkabinetts of the 16th Century, exalt atypical orderings of objects and specimens. By locating the roots of environmental politics and public policy in the construction of knowledge about nature, Mark Dion questions the authoritative role of the scientific voice in contemporary society.” - Art 21

Quotes:

When asked about the importance of performance in his work:

“I am very interested in the figure of the dilettante, the amateur. Amateurs have made great contributions in science, but now we live in a time when there’s such a radical degree of specialization that it’s very difficult for professionals in physics or biology to be able to communicate to a general public. Trying to be this character in between is fascinating. At the same time, I’m always suspicious of the way artists use science because science has such tremendous influence and authority in our culture. Whenever you encounter the kind of authority that seems unquestioned and unquestionable you need to find ways to challenge it. One of the reasons for taking a play-acting approach is to create a situation in which people regard the trappings of authority with suspicion.”

PBS. "Art21 . Mark Dion . Interview & Videos | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 01 Sept. 2011. "http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/dion/clip2.html".

Comment on site-specificity from Miwon Kwon in reference to Mark Dion and other site-specific artists:

“The site of art is again redefined, often extending beyond familiar art contexts to more ‘public’ realms . . . the site can now be as various as a billboard, an artistic genre, a disenfranchised community, an institutional framework, a magazine page, a social cause, or a political debate. It can be literal, like a street corner, or virtual, like a theoretical concept.”

Kwon, Miwon. "Introduction." One Place after Another: Site-specific Art and Locational Identity. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2004. 1-9. Janetzweig.com. Web. 1 Sept. 2011.

Work: