Image: Nevada Museum of Art, Reno
Artist Mark Dion will lead a discussion on how scientific methods shape the ways people collect, interpret and display the natural world at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno on Thursday, September 17. The talk, titled ‘Questioning Conventions and Reframing Ideas about Nature,’ is scheduled for 6 to 7 p.m.
The program will focus on Dion’s interdisciplinary practice and his examination of how knowledge about nature is produced. According to the museum, the artist uses approaches borrowed from science to investigate the relationship between society and the natural world, while questioning the objectivity and authority commonly associated with scientific institutions.
The conversation will also address the ways ideology, pseudo-science and social agendas enter public discourse and systems of knowledge. Rather than treating scientific classification and display as neutral processes, the program presents Dion’s work as an inquiry into the structures that determine what is collected, how it is interpreted and which narratives are made visible.
Dion’s work ‘Cabinet of Extinction’ is currently on view in the ‘The Sixth Extinction’ section of ‘INTO THE TIME HORIZON’ at the museum. The installation is presented alongside a wider exhibition framework concerned with the natural world and possible collective futures. The Nevada Museum of Art’s event calendar lists ‘INTO THE TIME HORIZON’ as on view through January 3, 2027.
The talk forms part of a sequence of programs connected to the museum’s exhibitions and environmental themes. The calendar also lists a September 18 presentation, ‘Butterflies, Biodiversity, and Lost Species,’ featuring University of Nevada, Reno biologist Matt Forister, who will discuss extinction, undiscovered species and conservation. The museum has separately scheduled an interactive tour of ‘INTO THE TIME HORIZON’ for September 16.
Admission to Dion’s talk is listed in the museum’s September newsletter as $15 for the general public and $10 for members. Registration is required. The Nevada Museum of Art is located at 160 West Liberty Street in Reno; its regular Thursday hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
