Metabolic Scales

<p dir="ltr">Background</p><p dir="ltr">This research is informed by critical literature on extraction economies, geological temporality, and Indigenous knowledge systems. Kathryn Yusoff’s A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None (2018) critiques Western geological perspectives and the framing of minerals as passive resources, while Marcia Langton and Odette Mazel’s work on Indigenous communities and resource extraction highlights the socio-political impact of mining industries. These perspectives shape the project’s exploration of Australia’s role as a resource supplier and the entanglement of industrialisation, colonialism, and ecological transformation. </p><p dir="ltr">Contribution</p><p dir="ltr">Metabolic Scales engages with the deep-time formation of banded iron deposits and the Great Oxidation Event, situating resource extraction within planetary-scale transformations. The work examines Australia’s extractive industries as metabolic engines of industrialisation in other nations, with a focus on the Pilbara’s iron ore economy. It critiques dominant economic narratives by highlighting the dispossession of Indigenous communities and the environmental externalities of extraction. Drawing on Yusoff’s critique of geologic life, the project questions the perceived neutrality of minerals in global industrial histories. Through installation, video and text, Metabolic Scales recontextualises Australia’s role in global resource flows, offering an alternative perspective on economic and ecological entanglements. </p><p dir="ltr">Significance</p><p dir="ltr">Metabolic Scales was funded by Creative Australia and selected for exhibition in These Entanglements: Ecology After Nature, UQ Art Museum, curated by Anna Briers. The work is exhibited alongside prominent Australian and international artists and contributes to an exploration of molecular, geological, and biological entanglements of the anthropogenic climate crisis.</p>