Just like his artwork, Mark Dion’s artistic practice strays far away from the mold of a traditional studio artist. From his Pennsylvania home and studio, Dion describes how he began his unconventional artistic process. “When I’m starting a new project, I tend to adhere to a particular kind of methodology,” says the artist. “I’m not really very much a studio-oriented kind of person, I like to make things on-site.”

To those who are familiar with the grandiosity of Dion’s work, it is unsurprising to discover that the artist’s simultaneously analytical yet imaginative ecologically-inspired artworks begin with physical tinkering outdoors, rather than sketching in a confined studio space. “I bring with me, my sort of suitcase of ideas and the history of my work and concerns, and I begin to sort of come up with ideas,” says Dion. “I try to insert myself into the specific social history of the place.”