Cobalt and Extractivism: Heather Davis on Art, Mining, and Visual Culture

Heather Davis's essay 'Blue, Bling: On Extractivism', published in Afterall Journal 48 (July 2019), explores the intimate connections between cobalt mining, visual culture, and colonial capitalism. Cobalt, a key component in lithium-ion batteries and military alloys, is primarily mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo under hazardous conditions. Davis examines how artists Mary Mattingly and Otobong Nkanga address extractivism through their practices. Mattingly traces cobalt's supply chains in works like 'Own It' and 'What Happens After', using photography and sculpture to reveal the material's entanglement with visual technologies. Nkanga's 'In Pursuit of Bling' series, including the video 'Remains of the Green Hill', documents the Tsumeb mine in Namibia, highlighting the desire for minerals and the scars left by extraction. Both artists refuse easy critique, instead staging embodied encounters with the materials of exploitation. The essay draws on scholars like Alberto Acosta, Macarena Gómez-Barris, and Nicholas Mirzoeff to frame extractivism as a mode of accumulation rooted in colonialism. Davis argues that visuality and extractivism are mutually reinforcing, with cobalt enabling drone and satellite technologies used to locate further resources.