The Extracting Us curatorial collective was born in 2019 out of a meeting between myself and Siti Maimunah who was a visiting doctoral scholar-activist at the University of Brighton, with colleagues Dian Ekowati, Alice Owen and Rebecca Elmhirst, all part of the EU-funded WEGO-ITN network for Feminist Political Ecology research. Our work was based between the United Kingdom, France, Thailand and Indonesia. From this encounter came a desire to first speak to issues of extractivism very specific to a geographical context: East Kalimantan. We also knew that this topic could cross boundaries, borders and times.
The project is grounded in feminist political ecological approaches, thus foregrounding the experiences and agencies of communities on the frontlines of the extractive zone, paying attention to how power over the environment—which follows the contours of coloniality, race and patriarchy—not only reshapes landscapes but limits the possibilities for thriving, with devastating consequences.
With this came a need to shift perspectives of extractivism from the universalising, the spectacular, and extractive aesthetic objectification towards curating creative forms from the frontlines of extractivism. These perspectives instead centre the gaze on the everyday as the time–space where extractivism is both experienced and resisted.
These principles guided the curatorial decisions in the physical and online exhibitions, in the kinds of spaces that were facilitated alongside the sharing of artist/activist/researchers’ work.
The collective led three exhibitions – all are archived on the extractingus.org website.
- 2019 | Extracting Us : Looking Differently at Feminism, Politics and Coal Extraction at ONCA Gallery in Brighton, UK (see also blog post on WEGO website)
- 2020 | Extracting Us online exhibition as part of the POLLEN20 international conference
- 2021-22 | Despite Extractivism online exhibition, interactive space and event series
You can also read a paper written about this experience:
- Extracting Us Curatorial Collective (2023) “Extracting Us: Co-curating Creative Responses to Extractivism Through a Feminist Political Ecology Praxis”, in Contours of Feminist Political Ecology. Gender, Development and Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, pp.51-73 (open access book)