Conceptual artist Mark Dion will present the next Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist Lecture. Dion’s work examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge and the natural world. 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.

Dion also frequently collaborates with museums of natural history, aquariums, zoos and other institutions mandated to produce public knowledge on the topic of nature. He is the co-director of Mildred’s Land an innovative visual art education and residency program in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania. For more than two decades, Dion has worked in the public realm in a wide range of scales, from architecture projects to print interventions in newspapers.

This lecture is free and open to the public.