Marc Swanson A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco |
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| Author:
| Markonish, Denise
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site,
Menconeri, Kate |
| Editor:
| Markonish, Denise
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site,
Menconeri, Kate |
| Artist:
| Swanson, Marc |
| ISBN: | 978-0-9829914-8-0 |
| Publication Date: | Aug 2022 |
| Publisher: | MASS MoCA Foundation, The
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| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | Contact Supplier contact
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Book Description:
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Marc Swanson works across diverse media, creating sculptures and environments that explore the relationships between humans, culture, and the natural world. His most ambitious installation to date, A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco is inspired by the dioramas found in natural history museums as well as Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole's (1801-1848) writings on the negative effects of development in the Catskills region. Additionally, Swanson references the disco, which he...
More DescriptionMarc Swanson works across diverse media, creating sculptures and environments that explore the relationships between humans, culture, and the natural world. His most ambitious installation to date, A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco is inspired by the dioramas found in natural history museums as well as Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole's (1801-1848) writings on the negative effects of development in the Catskills region. Additionally, Swanson references the disco, which he explores in relation to freedom and mourning during the AIDS crisis. Taken together, these references create an installation that confronts loss and our inability to control human nature and the world around us. A companion exhibition will go on view July 16-November 27, 2022, at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, NY.Marc Swanson received his MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, in 2004, attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2000, and was faculty at Skowhegan in 2014. He is a contemporary American artist whose handmade work brings together formal preoccupations and references to personal history and identity conflict. He works in a variety of media, including sculpture, drawing, video, photography, and complex installations. As art critic David Velasco notes, "Swanson is an automythologist, one who excels in crafting sparkling, enigmatic totems from the messiness of his own history; there kitsch and confession dovetail to reveal, not obscure, visceral thirsts." His work has been exhibited widely, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Walker Art Center, ICA Boston, Tensta Konsthall, MASS MoCA, and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site.