T.J. Demos writes about the complexity of local ecologies in the context of globalization, with really strong illustrations of artworks by eminent contemporary artists and a thorough political background. His writing is easy to read, even though the complexity of the topics is huge, which made me immerse in the book and read it in nearly one go. He demonstrates an in-depth understanding of ecologies and what do artworks do for these ecologies, in the wider context of the environmental problem. It's highly informative and analytical at the same time. It also makes fair mention of the beginnings of the Environmental art movement, acknowledges systems thinking, contextualising in this way the artists which have contemporary practices in the complex world we live.

 

It enlightened me in regards to the roots of the problem, which is not just capitalism as a model of an economic system, but the existence of an economic system based on money in the global context. Because money is the same asset and it's highly transferrable it affects how societies are preyed upon. For example, because corporations like Monsanto have economic power they control what is accessible to small farmers and because of a series of chain reactions, leads them to bankruptcy and even suicide. In Western society, even the conscientious consumer gets preyed and conned over what is actually organic, fair trade, or genuinely good for the environment, because that itself became absorbed by the economic system and is a way of making money and ultimately generating more production, which means more destruction.

 

Demos quotes David Harvey describing the state of advanced capitalism as "accumulation by dispossession", which is in sum, the poison of which "decolonizing Nature" is the antidote of. The obsession for money and the fact that it is an internationalized good, take shape in imperialist tendencies and a neo-colonization is taking over the world in corporate facades. The artists that Demos analyses have different approaches: from hyperbolizing the disruptive environment of noise pollution, to conservationist projects that document and critique in real time, the scope of his research is not only of an amazing breath, but also of rigorous approach. He establishes comparisons and his descriptions don't shy away from effectiveness assessments.