Last weekend was Mark Dion time in Toronto: first came the Thursday opening of his exhibition “Maquettes” at goodwater on Queen East, then his well-attended Friday talk at the Royal Ontario Museum, where he spoke at the inaugural session of the 2008 Canadian Art International Lecture Series. At goodwater, “Maquettes” demonstrates the lean economy appropriate to an ecology-conscious artist who fuses natural history with contemporary conceptual art making. The show unfolds from packing crates that serve as support plinths for small-scale sculptural objects that Dion has collected and adapted. A polar bear gripping a boom box, a tarred staircase and a dollhouse mantelpiece recall imagery from some of the larger Dion installations that have graced major museums over the past decade.
Gallery director John Goodwin notes, “this is Mark Dion’s third project at goodwater. For his project Dion wanted to present a survey of his work in miniature (child-scale) form… a mini-greatest hits.” This is partly a pragmatic choice, as it’s a challenge to secure loans on Dion’s larger works now scattered in collections around the globe. But it’s also, Goodwin argues, a conceptual decision, with Dion’s process of building the show out of a duffle bag and a FedEx box acting as an ’08 riff on Duchamp’s valise. Would Marcel himself approve? Maybe one day Dion can excavate him to find out. But until then, we’ll just have to look, and assemble some meanings ourselves. (234 Queen St E, Toronto ON)
In this excerpt from her new memoir, influential artist Gathie Falk describes her early childhood, her first art lessons, and why she dropped out of school.
Aruna D'Souza's forthcoming book Whitewalling: Art, Race & Protest in 3 Acts reviews three incidents in the long and troubled relationship between race and the art world.
A work by Mark Dion at Goodwater Gallery
