Revolutionary Drills: Art and Extractivism in the Socialist Anthropocene

Fowkes, Maja and Fowkes, Reuben, eds. (2027) Revolutionary Drills: Art and Extractivism in the Socialist Anthropocene. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam. (In Press)

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Abstract

This publication gathers together artistic perspectives on extractivism under socialism, unearthing through analysis of its visual culture the particular attitudes towards mineral reserves, fossil deposits and chemical compounds that provided the bedrock for the building of the global socialist system. Positing extractive operations as a driver of the Socialist Anthropocene, it investigates how artists documented, articulated and reflected critically on socialist extractivism by engaging with the topologies of mining and metallurgical enterprises, the metabolic exchanges circulating through its unfurling infrastructures and the coercive logistics of strategic chemical, nuclear and petroleum complexes. By scrutinizing the socialist industrial past through art history, visual culture, contemporary art and architectural studies, the book illuminates the distinctive praxes, grandiose objectives and inconsistencies of socialist extractivism, in which the ethos of progress, planning, science and workers’ welfare were entwined on the ground with forced resettlements, territorial incursions and toxic fallouts. Charting the expansion of mining frontiers both within socialist states and transnationally, this volume also addresses the continuing social and environmental impacts of extractivism and the role of decolonial and ecological art practices in envisioning reparative strategies in its aftermath.

Item Type:	Book
Uncontrolled Keywords:	art,extractivism,anthropocene,socialist anthropocene,mining
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of History
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Art History and World Art Studies
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	02 Nov 2026 10:00
Last Modified:	02 Nov 2026 10:00
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/104949
DOI:

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