Mark Dion: Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist Lecture

Mark Dion’s work examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge, and the natural world. Appropriating archaeological, field ecology, 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.

Dion frequently collaborates with museums of natural history, aquariums, zoos, and other institutions mandated to produce public knowledge on the topic of nature. By locating the roots of environmental politics and public policy in the construction of knowledge about nature, Mark Dion questions the objectivity and authoritative role of the scientific voice in contemporary society, tracking how pseudoscience, social agendas, and ideology creep into public discourse and knowledge production.

He is the co-director of Mildred’s Lane, an innovative visual art education and residency program in Narrowsburg, New York. He earned a BFA and an honorary doctorate from the University of Hartford and attended the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. He also holds an honorary doctorates from The Wagner Free Institute of Science in Philadelphia and University of Massachusetts. Dion lives with his wife and frequent collaborator Dana Sherwood in Copake, New York, and works worldwide.