Black Earth Rising: Colonialism and Climate Change in Contemporary Art

Renowned writer, broadcaster and curator Ekow Eshun’s Black Earth Rising is both ambitious in scope and argument, and almost poetic in its language, making it an intriguing and complex reading experience rather than a coffee-table title that is easy to dip into and out of. That said, the book is also exquisitely put together, with large glossy reproductions of artworks and photographs. One hundred leading artists are featured and there is much visual richness to discover here; their work is also used to trace the links between the workings of colonialism and our current climate emergency. Encouragingly, Black Earth Rising concludes with a hope-inducing section entitled ‘Reclaiming’, which in Eshun’s words, ‘brings together works that assert the natural world as a site of personal and political liberation’, and is filled with truly beautiful, uplifting and inspiring artworks.