Mark Dion at American Fine Arts - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

In a gallery upon a treeless street in Manhattan, Mark Dion invites us to mirror on our relationship with nature. And if the words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following seems odd for such meditations, Dion wisely reminds us that our understanding of "nature" is as artificial and decrepit as the surrounding city close Inside the gallery, one stand over againsts the only two trees within block ups each confined to its be in possession of room and prepared for survival in a hostile urban environment.

The first compass is filled by The Library for the Birds of fresh York, an uprooted tree whose branches obey as shelves laden with works on nature, illustrative prints, cages and other detritus of human efforts to organize and contain bird species. The tree's limbs are barely able to support the weight of the works which tumble into a pile upon the floor below--ready, it strike one as beings to fuel a bonfire which would finish not on the tree. Complete with aliment and nests, The Library for the Birds of novel York is designed to assist fresh York City's birds should they wish to research issues concerning their continued survival. Of course, the volumes and images that decorate the tree are useless to birds. It is left for humans, then, to sort from one side the tree's materials--much of it cautionary--concerning our have relationship with avian species. As a warning to fresh York's birds and humans alike, a number of the body s and images recall human agency in the extinction of North American birds species (the passenger pigeon, the Carolina parakeet) one time categorized as "pests."

More adaptable species are commemorated in Tar and Feathers, which dominates the next to the first room of Dion's show. A bare tree with sum of two units branches is hung with taxidermic examples of species notable for their ability to survive and proliferate in human environments. A cat, a rat, a pigeon, a starling, a bullfrog and several snakes dangle in poses suggesting violent lynchings. The entire plastic art is covered in tar and tiny white feathers. Tar and Feathers is an external reality both elegant and repellent: its solid black contour is no les striking in an equally graphic drawing displayed in the gallery's back room

These of recent origin works demonstrate Dion's continued succes in translating a bear upon with the institutional representation of nature (as meetinged in natural history museums, zoo and nature publications) into the words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following of art museums and galleries. As in his 1992 installation The Birds, which at handed a garbage dump complete with materialed sea gulls, cats and rats, Dion again questions the assumptions of naturalist taxonomies and whether they are relevant to the late 20th hundred While exploring the intellectual terrain of scientific theory, Dion creates compelling work that is as smart as it is visually intriguing.

COPYRIGHT 1996 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group