Mark Dion Contemporary Artist

by Dion, Mark; Corrin, Lisa Graziose; Kwon, Miwon; Bryson, Norman

• ISBN13: 9780714836591
• ISBN10: 0714836591
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-09-26
• Publisher: Phaidon Press

Summary

This text explores the work of vanguard artist Mark Dion who has madeite-specific projects all over the world which explore the relationship ofestern art, literature and museology with the natural environment. Hisculptures and installations often focus on contemporary environmental issues,nd have the uncanny quality of film sets or dioramas. His life-sizenvironments have included live and stuffed animals, plants, lab equipment,nd museological displays of garbage. They present lyrical and funnynvestigations into exoticism, colonialism and environmental crisis.;Dionimself has taken on a variety of personae including reporter, scientist,xplorer and detective. He has also set up collaborations withnthropologists, zoologists, geographers and groups of school children, ands well-known for his drawings and his writings.;The book is part of a seriesf studies of important artists of the late-20th century. Each title offers aomprehensive survey of the artist's work, providing analyses and multipleerspectives on contemporary art and its inspiration.

Author Biography

Lisa Graziose Corrin is the Director of the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Formerly Chief Curator at The Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, Chief Curator at the Serpentine Gallery in London and Deputy Director of Art at the Seattle Art Museum, she has also contributed to a range of art journals.

Miwon Kwon is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles.  She was a founding editor and publisher of the journal Documents, and serves on the advisory board of October. She is the author of One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity (2002).

Norman Bryson is a British-born art historian and Professor of Art History at the University of California, San Diego. He has published widely in the areas of eighteenth-century art history, critical theory, and contemporary art.

Table of Contents

Interview Miwon Kwon in conversation with Mark Dion	6	(30)
Lisa Graziose Corrin
Survey A Natural History of Wonder and a Wonderful History of `Nature'	36	(52)
Norman Bryson
Focus Mark Dion and the Birds of Antwerp	88	(10)
John Berger
Artist's Choice Why Look at Animals? (extract), 1980	98	(12)
Mark Dion
Artist's Writings Tales from the Dark Side, 1988	110	(34)
Project for the Belize Zoo, 1990	111	(1)
Taxonomy of Non-endangered Species, 1990	112	(2)
M. Cuvier `Discover Extinction, 1990	114	(2)
Concrete Jungle: A Discussion with Alexis Rockman (extract), 1991	116	(8)
The Delirium of Alfred Russel Wallace, 1994	124	(4)
A Little Bird Told Me, 1995	128	(6)
The Natural History Box: Preservation, Categorization and Display, 1995	134	(6)
The Tasting Garden, 1996	140	(4)
Chronology	144	(15)
Bibliography, List of Illustrations	159