Mark Dion Suite of 19 Lithographs

This is a suite of lithographs published by Tamarind Institute in 2019. The portfolio was part of Mark's western adventures through Texas, an extension of the two-year project hosted by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, titled The Perilous Texas Adventures of Mark Dion (Feb 8-May 17, 2020). For the Amon Carter project, Dion retraced the footsteps of several nineteenth-century explorers through Texas. His process digs into the oddities and the mundane, the vernacular and the overlooked specimens of culture. The project with Tamarind assembles 19 lithographs in a small wooden box, a tribute to the collecting tools and instruments that these explorers might have used. The Tamarind portfolio, titled Perilous Adventures Field Apparatus, was created in response to the Texas project, and included in the Amon Carter’s site-specific exhibition. Dion’s hand-drawn tools assemble a wry and endearing collection of the early explorer’s analog tool kit.

This work for sale is a "Printer's Proof" from the private collection of Perry Obee.

Mark Dion’s work examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge, and the natural world. The job of the artist, he says, is to go against the grain of dominant culture, to challenge perception and convention. 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. The artist’s spectacular and often fantastical curiosity cabinets, modeled on Wunderkammen of the 16th and 17th Century, exalt atypical orderings of objects and specimens. Dion also 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 pseudo-science, social agendas and ideology creep into public discourse and knowledge production.
(from Tanya Bonakdar Gallery)

All materials that come in contact with the print are fully archival. Packaged using rigid boards to assure safe shipping. Ships via FedEx standard flat rate of $42 to anywhere in the US. Request a quote for international shipping. Local pickup is available for free.