A Study on the Artistic Application of Collecting and Cataloguing in Contemporary Art: with a focus on Mark Dion’s Work

• Published in: 기초조형학연구, 16(3) pp. 317 - 331
• Main Author: 송민정
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 한국기초조형학회 01.06.2015
• Subjects: 예술일반
• ISSN: 1598-8635; 2713-5993

The legacy of the Renaissance Cabinet of Curiosities has continued through artistic applications of collecting and cataloguing since the early twentieth century. While Mark Dion’s ‘archaeological dig series’ shares formal resemblances to the curiosity cabinets, it is notably distinctive in adopting and appropriating scientific methodologies to criticize and challenge institutional knowledge. Hence, this study closely examines the implication of the collecting and cataloguing within the field of artistic practice with a focus on Mark Dion’s work, and explains how the method is used for artists to produce new knowledge, express ideas or interpret contemporary culture. This paper comparatively analyzed implications of Cabinet of Curiosities from the Renaissance to postmodern periods. Whereas Cabinet of Curiosities from the Renaissance was a means for an individual to gain knowledge about the world on their own right, the collecting and cataloguing culture evolved into the early form of science during the pre-modern period. In the twentieth century, the Surrealist group employed collecting and assembling methods to achieve poetic and psychological effects, and more recently artists like Mark Dion mediated the format of classification system in order to challenge the institutional knowledge by using both artistic and scientific methodologies. It is expected that this study will contribute to the understanding of alternative forms of knowledge in postmodern art practices by analyzing both formal to conceptual aspects of Cabinet of Curiosities. KCI Citation Count: 0