Artist # 15

Mark Dion born in 1961, recieved a BFA from the University of Hartford school of art in 1986. He is an installation artist and uses a wide variety of objects in his displays. Dion's work examines ways in which dominant ideologies help us understand history and the natural world. With his work he wants to challenge perception and convention. "The job of the artist is to go against the grain of a dominant culture." Probably his most well known work is the permanent outdoor installation where he and his team of researchers biologists and other helpers excavated a tree and various plant life and installed it in a building in Seattle where people can come and learn about how a forest ecosystem works. Dion likes to question the authoritative role of the scientific voice in a modern society.