Arts and Extractivism in the Global Present

Through the lens of contemporary art, this book focuses on social ecologies and those spaces that are characterized, on the one hand, by a high degree of biodiversity, and on the other, by a long history of the extraction of resources, (neo)colonial relationships, and extractivism.

Contributors discuss the importance of ignored knowledge practices and systems, as well as alternative designs of the world that reach beyond simply thinking about progress. Chapters posit that contemporary art and ethnographic objects reflect extractive practices and the potential for regeneration in very different ways. In dialogue with one another, both art and the ethnographic object reveal alternative perspectives of agency, critical historiographies, and possible forms of living together in a new way. Foregrounding emerging environmental aesthetics, the book also critically engages the historical documents and artifacts collected by museums that bear witness today to knowledge gaps and the politics of resource transfer.

The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, environmental humanities, ecocriticism, ethnology, exhibition and museum studies.