Deliciously Dark Art Of Mark Dion Seizes Moment In The Sun At Storm King
Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, Conservatory for Confectionery Curiosities, (2008/2019). Mixed media installation. 9 ft. 10 1/8 in. x 13 ft. 1 1/2 in. x 66 15/16 in. (300 x 400 x 170 cm) .
JEFFREY JENKINS
An octagonal glass greenhouse modeled after those found in a courtly garden is filled with a tower of brightly colored, transparent cast-resin desserts reminiscent of classic gelation molds. On Saturday, the mighty sunlight illuminated the display installed on Storm King Art Center’s Museum Hill, the faux confections glistening, almost glittering. Delightful from a distance, a closer inspection reveals fake insects, such as beetles and flies, adorning what looks like a menagerie of after-dinner offerings rotating at a 1970s family restaurant.
A collaboration of Mark Dion and his wife Dana Sherwood, Confectionery Curiosities (2008/2019) is a highlight of Mark Dion: Follies, on view through November 11. The first exhibition to display Dion’s folly works as a major survey is an exploration of the artist’s creative interpretation of architectural folly since the mid-1990s.
Mark Dion American, b. 1961 Dana Sherwood American, b. 1977 Conservatory for Confectionery Curiosities (2008/2019) Close-Up, Detail View Mixed media installation 9 ft. 10 1/8 in. x 13 ft. 1 1/2 in. x 66 15/16 in. (300 x 400 x 170 cm) Courtesy the
JEFFREY JENKINS
“The notion of the folly is really rooted in aristocratic society. I wanted to see if we could wrestle it away form the aristocracy,” Dion told a group tour gathered around the installation Saturday. “It also functions as a display case. I can have stuff. A lot of stuff. And people can interact with it.”
Sherwood explained the layered historical references of the work and this site-specific context. “A topiary is a monument to man’s manipulation of nature. It’s very different from the wild and natural landscaping you see at Storm King. … You get in and see these magical forms. Not only are they beautiful, but they are covered in dead insects.”
She likened them to vanitas paintings, symbolic works of art depicting the transience of life, often found in Netherlandish art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Specifically, she recalled “vanitas paintings with different insects and snails devouring the flowers.”
When the couple first created the cast-resin desserts, they “just flew out of the art fairs,” said Dion. “We were creeped out that they were so successful. This is a perfect setting, because you have a conflict with the informal garden style (of Storm King) and the English garden style. I’m not an artist who can’t stop making art. That’s not what I’m into. I’m into the ideas. That is why I like working site-specific and in a public domain.”
“What stands out to me most is the idea of the garden. It changes just as our fashions change,” added Sherwood. “In the sixteenth century, we had a very different idea of what nature is than we do now. (It’s about) our place in the natural world and our coexistence.”
Installed both indoors and outdoors in various locations across Storm King’s 500 acres, some of the 13 Follies have been recreated in slightly altered forms to respond to their new site at the art center, some 60 miles from Manhattan and a 30-minute ride from Beacon. There are several ways to get there from New York City.
Some Follies like Confectionery Curiosities are meant to be experienced by viewing from a distance and close up, others are accessible via peeks into windows and doors, and others like Storm King Environmental Field Station (2019) are interactive.
The newly created site-specific field station is a phenomenal experience for elementary school children, who are invited to use telescopes, microscopes, and conduct field experiments plucking wild grass and other flora from the surrounding areas. They’re invited to write down their name, home city, date, and the day’s weather. The latter two were of particular interest and poignancy as the summer heat persisted Saturday, a day after New York City students were permitted to leave school during the day and join the global climate change strike.
Mark Dion American, b. 1961 Storm King Environmental Field Station (2019) Mixed media installation 12 ft. 6 in. (381 cm) high; 18 ft. (548.6 cm) wide Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonak dar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles
JEFFREY JENKINS
“The observation station is an art work that functions for everyday use,” said Dion. “It can be a work of art if it comes together in the same way at the end of the day.”
The station was built from a repurposed steel rainwater collection vessel that is outfitted with implements for scientific discovery and staged as a hands-on classroom. Dion started creating functional outdoor laboratories as artworks in the early 1990s and has since installed many similar site-specific stations relating to the surroundings and context.
Mark Dion American, b. 1961 The Dark Museum (2011/2019) Mixed media installation 9 ft. 10 in. x 13 ft. 1 in. x 20 ft. (299.7 x 398.8 x 609.6 cm) Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles
JEFFREY JENKINS
As you navigate the sprawling space, viewing the 100 permanent sculptures and installations, make your way to The Dark Museum (2011/2019), an eerie wooden shack tucked away in Storm King’s Maple Rooms. Walk inside the creepy, cozy space for a careful look at a resin-cast manatee skeleton dangling above a curious collection of found objects displayed in a glass vitrine. Think haunted house meets natural history museum.
Let the spirit and the season move you to the nearby Memento Mori (My Glass is Run) (2004), a graveyard for renowned naturalists who worked in and around the Northeast in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Besides the wide array of Follies, Dion’s drawings and prints on view in the Museum Building navigate his creative process. The special exhibition is organized by Nora Lawrence, senior curator, David Collens, director and chief curator, and Sarah Diver, curatorial assistant.
“Mark Dion’s work is deeply invested in exploring our relationship to the natural world, and by reimagining these works within the context of Storm King’s site, our presentation injects these works with new, site-sensitive meanings,” said Lawrence.