ST. LOUIS, MO.- Laumeier Sculpture Park is presenting Mark Dion: Follies. Mark Dion has fashioned a world-wide reputation as an innovative sculptor and installation artist whose points of departure include the intersections of the historical and the contemporary, as well as the man-made and natural worlds. Mark Dion: Follies is the most comprehensive look at the artist’s architectural works from the 1990s to the present; sheds or shacks filled with the tools of the trade for scientists, botanists and naturalists who live in, study and collect natural specimens. Laumeier is presenting selections from the original exhibition. Visitors can experience sculptural installations such as Hunting Blind (The Glutton) and Hunting Blind (The Dandy Rococo), Dion’s elaborate takes on the outdoor protective structures used by hunters, as well as The Memory Box, a shed filled with dozens of keepsake objects stored in individual containers that suggest the ways that inanimate objects are associated with treasured memories. Approximately one dozen drawings, prints and photographs will round out the presentation.
Mark Dion: Follies debuted at Storm King Art Center in New York State from May 4 to November 11, 2019, and was curated by Storm King staff Nora R. Lawrence, Senior Curator; David Collens, Director and Chief Curator; and Sarah Diver, Curatorial Assistant. Its presentation at Storm King attracted many enthusiastic visitors and garnered coverage in the international press, including Artnet News, The Art Newspaper, Forbes, The New York Times, and the New Yorker.
Selections from the Storm King presentation are on view at Laumeier where its installation was overseen by Lauren Ross, Executive Director and Dana Turkovic, Curator. Ross states: “Laumeier is thrilled to bring Mark Dion’s artwork to the St. Louis region. His work is at once smart, funny, accessible, thought provoking, and perfectly aligned with our mission of engaging the community through art and nature.” Turkovic adds, “I can’t wait to see Dion’s work here at Laumeier, the interaction between art and science, zoology and landscape, mixed with pre-fab architecture and thrift-store trinkets will nurture the curiosity of our visitors.”
Mark Dion: Follies is accompanied by a boxed set produced by Storm King, containing a publication in the “field guide” style that is typical of Dion’s books, along with a glass vial containing a natural sample collected at Storm King, each of which is unique. Produced in an edition of 500, each box is individually numbered. The field guide publication includes texts on Dion’s work by multiple authors as well as reprinted interviews with the artist. The boxed set is available for purchase in Laumeier’s Gracie’s Shop for $36 for members, and $40 for non-members.
Mark Dion (b. 1961, New Bedford, MA) has exhibited his work internationally for decades. His many solo exhibitions Theatre of the Natural World at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018), Misadventures of a 21st Century Naturalist at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston (2017), Mark Dion: The Academy of Things at The Academy of Fine Arts Design in Dresden, Germany (2014), The Macabre Treasury at Museum Het Domein in Sittard, The Netherlands (2013), Oceanomania: Souvenirs of Mysterious Seas at Musée Océanographique de Monaco and Nouveau Musée National de Monaco/Villa Paloma in Monaco (2011), The Marvelous Museum: A Mark Dion Project at Oakland Museum of California (2010-11), Systema Metropolis at Natural History Museum, London (2007), The South Florida Wildlife Rescue Unit at Miami Art Museum (2006), Rescue Archaeology, a project for the Museum of Modern Art (2004), and his renowned Tate Thames Dig at the Tate Gallery in London (1999). He has produced large scale permanent commissions for Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany; the Montevideo Biannale in Uruguay; The Rose Art Museum; Johns Hopkins University; and the Port of Los Angeles. He lives in Copake, New York with his wife and frequent collaborator Dana Sherwood.
