Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood conducted what Dion called “fantastical archaeology,” envisioning the kinds of artifacts that one might find at Fort Point if it had been inundated by the sea long ago. Their installation presented sculptural versions of everyday items made to look as though they had spent a century underwater. These ordinary objects become hybrids of the natural and the human-made, marvelous artifacts of the historical imagination.
- Video: Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood
- Installation Views
Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, Encrustations, 2012 (installation view); photo: Jan Stürmann
Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, Encrustations, 2012 (installation view); photo: Jan Stürmann
Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, Encrustations, 2012 (installation view); photo: Jan Stürmann
Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, Encrustations, 2012 (installation view); photo: Jan Stürmann
Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, Encrustations, 2012 (installation view); photo: Ben Blackwell
Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, Encrustations, 2012 (installation view); photo: Ben Blackwell
Dana Sherwood received her BFA from the University of Maine and a post-baccalaureate from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has been included in exhibitions at the Kennedy Museum of Art, Athens, Ohio; Dia Foundation at the Hispanic Society of America, New York; and Scaramouche Gallery, New York. Sherwood has frequently collaborated on projects with Mark Dion, including The Tuileries Conservatory for Confectionery Curiosities (2008), exhibited in the Tuileries Garden in Paris.
Mark Dion is known for incorporating elements of biology, archaeology, ethnography, and the history of science into his work. Traveling the world and collaborating with scientists, artists, and museums, Dion has excavated artifacts from the banks of the Thames River in London, established a marine life laboratory using specimens from New York City’s Chinatown, and created a contemporary cabinet of curiosities exploring natural and philosophical hierarchies. His work has been presented internationally at major museums.