MTU Library Catalogue

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Black earth rising : colonialism and climate change in contemporary art / Ekow Eshun ; texts by Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Macarena Gomez-Barris.

By: Eshun, Ekow [author.].
Contributor(s): Arabindan-Kesson, Anna [writer of added commentary.] | Gómez-Barris, Macarena, 1970- [writer of added commentary.] | Baltimore Museum of Art [host institution, issuing body.].
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: London : Thames & Hudson, 2025Copyright date: ©2025Description: 239 pages : illustrations (chiefly colour), maps, portraits ; 32 cm.Content type: still image | text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 0500028788 (hardback) ; 9780500028780 (hardback) .Subject(s): Climatic changes in art -- Exhibitions | Settler colonialism -- Environmental aspects -- Exhibitions | Imperialism -- Environmental aspects -- Exhibitions | Forced migration -- Environmental aspects -- Exhibitions | Environmental degradation in art -- Exhibitions | Art, Black -- Exhibitions | Indigenous art -- Exhibitions | Art, Latin American -- Exhibitions | Art and social action -- ExhibitionsDDC classification: 704.943
Contents:
Introduction : Black Earth as a poem -- I. Reckoning : legacies of slavery and colonialism -- Plantation returns in contemporary art / Anna Arabindan-Kesson -- II. Reimagining : new myths of survival and resistance -- The creative storm of the otherwise / Macarena Gómez-Barris -- III. Reclaiming : nature as a source of renewal and liberation -- Notes -- Picture Credits -- Index -- Acknowledgments -- About the authors.
Summary: "Black Earth Rising presents works by artists of African diasporic, Latin American and Native American identity that address vital questions of land, presence, climate crisis, and social and environmental justice against the historical backdrop of European settlement of the New World. Supported by an exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art curated by the author, this timely publication invites us to trace and make the connections between race, the climate crisis and colonialism. Works by 100 contemporary artists are presented in three thematic sections: Reckoning, Reimagining and Reclaiming. Complex and intertwined concepts are explored: forced migration and slavery, the environmental consequences of colonialism, the occupation of Native lands, the urban plight of Black and Brown communities, and how cultural practices and knowledge systems of indigenous peoples can change our perspectives of the natural world. Compelling and thought-provoking, Black Earth Rising presents a discourse around climate change that situates the voices of people of colour at the active centre rather than on the passive periphery and expands our understanding of aesthetic perspectives on climate change through artworks that reach to the poetic and lyrical rather than the didactic" - publisher's website.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Barcode
General lending MTU Crawford College of Art and Design Library Lending 704.943 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 00232845
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A vibrant contemporary art anthology that explores the complex ties between race, climate crisis and colonialism by 100 leading artists of African diasporic, Latin American and Native American identity.

Black Earth Rising presents works by artists of African diasporic, Latin American and Native American identity that address vital questions of land, presence, climate crisis, and social and environmental justice against the historical backdrop of European settlement of the New World. Supported by an exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art curated by the author, this timely publication invites us to trace and make the connections between race, the climate crisis and colonialism.

Works by 100 contemporary artists are presented in three thematic sections: Reckoning, Reimagining and Reclaiming. Complex and intertwined concepts are explored: forced migration and slavery, the environmental consequences of colonialism, the occupation of Native lands, the urban plight of Black and Brown communities, and how cultural practices and knowledge systems of indigenous peoples can change our perspectives of the natural world.

Compelling and thought-provoking, Black Earth Rising presents a discourse around climate change that situates the voices of people of colour at the active centre rather than on the passive periphery and expands our understanding of aesthetic perspectives on climate change through artworks that reach to the poetic and lyrical rather than the didactic.

Learn more about the exhibition at artbma.org

Published in conjunction with the exhibition held at the Baltimore Museum of Art (18 May-21 September 2025).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 228-229) and index.

Introduction : Black Earth as a poem -- I. Reckoning : legacies of slavery and colonialism -- Plantation returns in contemporary art / Anna Arabindan-Kesson -- II. Reimagining : new myths of survival and resistance -- The creative storm of the otherwise / Macarena Gómez-Barris -- III. Reclaiming : nature as a source of renewal and liberation -- Notes -- Picture Credits -- Index -- Acknowledgments -- About the authors.

"Black Earth Rising presents works by artists of African diasporic, Latin American and Native American identity that address vital questions of land, presence, climate crisis, and social and environmental justice against the historical backdrop of European settlement of the New World. Supported by an exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art curated by the author, this timely publication invites us to trace and make the connections between race, the climate crisis and colonialism. Works by 100 contemporary artists are presented in three thematic sections: Reckoning, Reimagining and Reclaiming. Complex and intertwined concepts are explored: forced migration and slavery, the environmental consequences of colonialism, the occupation of Native lands, the urban plight of Black and Brown communities, and how cultural practices and knowledge systems of indigenous peoples can change our perspectives of the natural world. Compelling and thought-provoking, Black Earth Rising presents a discourse around climate change that situates the voices of people of colour at the active centre rather than on the passive periphery and expands our understanding of aesthetic perspectives on climate change through artworks that reach to the poetic and lyrical rather than the didactic" - publisher's website.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Ekow Eshun is a writer, curator, journalist and broadcaster based in London, whose writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times , the Financial Times , the Guardian and Vogue . Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, from 2005 to 2010, and a frequent contributor to BBC radio and television programmes, his previous books include The Strangers: Five Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them , published in 2024, and In the Black Fantastic , published in 2022.