The work of art in the age of extractivism

Abstract

How do we win the fight against fossil capitalism? What role do cultural institutions such as museums have in this struggle? Is it possible to liberate powerful cultural institutions from their colonial histories and reactionary boards of trustees? This essay analyzes the recent work of two collectives that have fought to transform cultural institutions. The Natural History Museum has sought to infiltrate and commandeer museums of natural history, opening them to radical currents in the natural sciences and to Indigenous water protectors. Strike MoMA, for its part, engaged in a mapping and denunciation of the role of the art museum in a nexus of extractivism. The two collectives are often counterposed, but this essay argues that they should be seen as complementary initiatives to win space for radical cultural production in an age of extractivism.

Keywords:

• Art
• extractivism
• natural history
• strike
• empire
• climate emergency
• insurgency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Detailed accounts of exhibitions and events organized by The Natural History Museum can be found at https://thenaturalhistorymuseum.org/.

2 The Strike MoMA Reader is available at https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/5235-the-strike-moma-reader.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ashley Dawson

Ashley Dawson is Professor of English at the Graduate Center / City University of New York and the College of Staten Island. His recent research focuses on key topics in the Environmental Humanities, including the books People’s Power: Reclaiming the Energy Commons (O/R, 2020), Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change (Verso, 2017), and Extinction: A Radical History (O/R, 2016). An anti-pipeline activist with the No North Brooklyn Pipeline campaign, a member of Public Power NY, and the founder of the CUNY Climate Action Lab, he is a long-time climate justice activist. Dawson is the author of a forthcoming book entitled Environmentalism from Below, and is co-editor of a volume of essays called Decolonize Conservation!