The Half an Hour Assignment

1. Mark Dion dulls the line between artist, scientist, and historian. In his artwork,Neukom Vivarium, he focuses on re-creating nature in a lab/classroom-like environment.

a. Recall some of the steps that were used to recreate the environment of a tree underneath the canopy.

1) The fallen tree was found in the forest

2) With the biologists, students, experts, advisors, Mr. Dion collected specimens from the ecosystem existing around the tree. Insects, soil, ferns, moss, leaves, rocks, photo-documentation (done throughout the process)

3)The cranes and transporting vehicles (the type used for trade containers) brought it to the exhibition site.

4)The tree was cut down to size and assembled within the concrete perimeter of the installation with the original soil and the environment inside the canopy remaking the original forest conditions, after which, the canopy with its light filters, sprinklers, water reserves was built around the exhibit. The place is built like a greenhouse around the tree which is preserved to allow the original inhabitants of it found in the forest to continue to exist in the stimulated environment. Drawers like those found in a laboratory and tiles with illustrations of the biodiversity in it were added in.

b. Dion stated that each time this artwork is visited, it would be a different experience. Why is this? (also recall where the work is located).

The artwork is created in an art exhibition space where sculptors and installation artists are exhibiting. The area is also near a more commercial district, so externally, the surroundings are ever changing.

Inside, the biodiversity is continuously growing and changing, because its a living ecosystem. As the tree/log decays, more bacteria, fungi and plants will grow on it. Each time one goes there, there will be a new addition to the artwork.

c. How does this artwork create a commentary on how we treat our environment? Make sure to use supporting elements from the artwork itself, artist intent, and process to justify your answer.

It creates a commentary on how difficult it is for us to recreate the conditions made for ecosystems to function. The thesis of Mark Dion is that despite all the money and technology that humanity has, when we destroy a natural system, it's virtually impossible to get it back. This is emphasized by the great extents of technology and materials that were used to recreate the set-up already made in the natural environment to sustain the standards which the tree used to be in. It's also in a way the idea that we can do something to sustain the environment artificially after we destroyed, however, it will require gargantuan effort to sustain just a small ecosystem as compared to the natural world.

Another aspect of this artwork is that the trees bring life through their death in a continuous cycle of life in the natural environment as the nutrients from the tree sustains all the seeds and smaller life forms now inhabiting it. It's location in the city is to bring something of the world far removed from our daily life closer to the cosmopolitan society to show how much we've lost of the natural world and as a contrast the environment we now have to live in. The exhibit serves then as an informative showroom of the natural habitat, a laboratory of the science involved in the ecosystem and a classroom where the artist hopes visitors will leave with more questions than they had before they experienced the artwork.

For his artwork Rats and Tar, please answer the following:

1. What is the historical background of this work?

Rats were not native to the one of the islands off the coast of Wales. When people visited the island and inhabited it, the rats came along and because of their behavior and the micro-organisms they transported, destroyed many natural species in the island.

The use of tar to coat the rats dates back to the Middle Ages where it was coated on corpses as a sort of retribution and a sign of intolerance. It was similarly done in America when settlers who executed criminals and pirates coated the corpses with tar to preserve them longer for public display, a deterrence to the public and to demean the person the body represents.

The idea of hanging the rats on the tree similarly comes from humanity's horrible history of tying the said criminals to trees as warnings.

2. Depending on who you are, you may find this work humorous or offensive. Dion's work is creating a commentary. What is the work a commentary about, and do you believe that he is successful in getting his point across? Why or why not?

The work was a commentary of how rats was a species which wiped out other species and are as such seen as criminals in natural history. However, a human practice has been used against the animals, which was a warning to people previously. The irony is that the humans were the ones who introduced the rats to the environment in the first place. This work is then a warning to people that we are criminals with regard to the way we treat the environment and that we are no better than the rats, and possibly even worse because the extent of our damage far outstrips the "crime" that the rats were coated and hung up for in the installation.

I think he was successful in provoking people because of his unconventional use of rats' cadavers, and as with the pickled animals, often stimulates a lot of debate among people. But its only as successful as the extent that the viewers are willing to research and know about the criminal execution methods linked with the tar which is a strong symbol about the not so pristine records of the human race. The artwork carries a lot of weight with it but if its taken in the literal sense without any explanation, it is not an easy piece to interpret.

Don't recall the video? Catch it again @ PBS.org. Search Mark Dion.