Mark Dion

MARK DION + OLIO2GO

Distributed in the USA by www.olio2go.com

1000 ml

Artist Mark Dion (b. 1961, New Bedford, Massachusetts) has created a botanical illustration of an olive branch for his special edition with Agricola Due Leoni. Its taxonomic categories recount the history of olive oil cultivation, in a series of delicate annotations. From the first cultivation of olives in the Caucasus to its labelling as “olea europea,” from Biblical references to olive garnishing ia Martini, Dion’s timeline tells a history of the world, via one of its most vaunted foodstuffs.

In the artist’s words, his work “examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge, and the natural world.” Appropriating archaeology, field ecology and other scientific methods of collecting, ordering, and exhibiting objects, the artists questions the distinctions between ‘objective’ (‘rational’) scientific methods and ‘subjective’ (‘irrational’) influences.

Dion 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.

He is the co-director of Mildred's Lane, an innovative visual art education and residency program in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania that borders on Narrowsburg, New York.

Dion lives with his wife and frequent collaborator Dana Sherwood in Copake, New York, and works worldwide.

From the best available selection of olive oil of the current year.

Artist photo by Jorge Colombo.