M HKA Ensembles

° 1961

Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts (), lives in New York ().

Mark Dion is fascinated by the great degree of diversity found in the organisms of our natural world and how humans interact with them. In his works, he attempts to clarify how our conceptions about nature are determined by science, media and ideology. The common thread running through his oeuvre is the way in which nature and natural history are (re)presented. He links scientific manners of classification and the museum context (collection formation and presentation). Mark Dion spent long periods working in the rainforests of Central- and South America as a traveling nature researcher. However, Dion does not pretend to be a scientist, as indeed his amateurism is often readily apparent. He remains first and foremost an artist, expert in imaging and transmitting visual information.