Lecture | Side Slams: Fish vs. Birds with Mark Dion and David Brooks
In celebration of Enduring Amazon, David Brooks has invited artist Mark Dion to join him in a dynamic Slide Slam, delving into the liveliness and diversity found within the animal kingdom. Join Brooks and Dion as they argue the virtuosity of fish vs. birds, comparing research and past work to illustrate the exuberance of animate life hovering atop the lifeless geological.
Free, tickets required. Reserve your spot online or with the Box Office at (479) 657-2335 today.
About the Speakers
David Brooks lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and then earned his BFA from The Cooper Union in 2000 and MFA from Columbia University in 2009. His work investigates how cultural concerns cannot be divorced from the natural world, while also questioning the terms under which nature is perceived and utilized.
Mark Dion was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1961. He received a BFA (1986) and an honorary doctorate (2003) from the University of Hartford, Hartford Art School, in Connecticut. He also attended the prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. 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 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.