Direct Action as Conceptual Art‪?‬

“[A] unique and original contribution to [the study] of … environmental protest. By comparing the written statements of Conceptual artists with the communiqués of ecodefenders, Brisman adds an unexpected analytical sophistication to our understanding of direct action. Can environmental protest be reconceptualised as Conceptual art? Maybe not exactly, but exploring the parallels certainly unlocks interesting and hitherto undiscussed similarities.”

—Murray Lee, Professor in Criminology, University of Sydney Law School, Australia

“As the immiseration of the world through capitalist exploitation and climate catastrophe accelerates, we’ll need every strategy to salvage planetary life. This provocative analysis of the communiqué demonstrates the value of attending to how eco-saboteurs make visible larger, world-destroying structures of violence. Brisman’s reading of art against environmental activism enriches our conception of direct action as a shocking, urgent interruption of the status quo; … a timely contribution to the conversation about how to change the seemingly unchangeable.”

—Luke Fidler, Assistant Professor of Art History, University of Southern California, USA

“This book advances criminological understandings of environmentalists’ radical actions and imaginaries in exciting, new, and creative directions. By comparing the communiqués accompanying activists’ direct actions to written texts in Conceptual art, Brisman foregrounds the importance of meaning as articulated and conveyed by activists themselves. A truly artful piece.”

—Anna Di Ronco, Associate Professor of Legal Studies, University of Bologna, Italy

This book offers an avenue for understanding the parameters, scope, meanings, and impacts of environmental protest. Focusing on ecodefense, it explores the significance of the communiqué (the written explanation of the reasons for an act of ecodefense), comparing the communiqué to written texts in Conceptual art. It presents and seeks to evaluate the following analogy: act of ecodefense : communiqué :: work of conceptual art : written declaration/statement. By considering the communiqué in this light, this book helps us better comprehend the rationales for “radical environmentalism” undertaken for the purposes of reducing environmental harms, natural resource exploitation, and animal abuse.

Avi Brisman, Professor of Justice Studies, Eastern Kentucky University, USA.