ASHES WILL NOT TESTIFY—The Ones Who Weren’t Radical Enough

A project on criminalized environmental action in the age of collapse

This project asks a simple, morally urgent question: In the face of mass extinction and ecological collapse—with likely casualties in the hundreds of millions—can any act of resistance truly be considered extreme, or is inaction the greater crime?

Framed by rising biosphere degradation and the criminalization of dissent, “ASHES WILL NOT TESTIFY: The Ones Who Weren’t Radical Enough” explores the history and visual language of so-called “eco-extremism.” It centers on movements like the Earth Liberation Front, targeted by FBI repression under the so-called Green Scare, and looks at how governments, corporations, and media actors define and punish “radical” responses to the climate crisis. The project reconsiders whether the real irresponsibility lies not with saboteurs and disrupters, but with those who maintain business as usual.

This work will unfold in three phases:

• Phase I: Research & Documentation / Archival research will focus on case studies of environmental direct action and state repression in North America, particularly the U.S. and Canada. Sources will include media coverage, government documents, activist communiqués, trial transcripts, and interviews with movement participants where possible. The project will also examine contemporary protest surveillance and legal repression (e.g. Wet’suwet’en solidarity actions, Bill C-51, and anti-terror frameworks).

• Phase II: Visual Production / Mixed-media artworks—collage, sculpture, and installation—will draw from this research. Possible materials include redacted documents, natural elements (charred wood, soil, stone), and symbolic objects (chains, animal traps, broken tools). Text-based pieces may use activist language, criminal charges, or government statements, reframed and recontextualized.

• Phase III: Public Presentation / The project will culminate in a visual installation and zine or pamphlet-style companion text. The aim is to provoke urgent questions: What kinds of action will we call heroic—too late? Who defines extremism? What does “protection” mean in the absence of a habitable planet?

‘ASHES WILL NOT TESTIFY: The Ones Who Weren’t Radical Enough’  contributes to the Collective Agreement’s 2025/2026 theme Labour and the Environment by reframing radical ecological action as a form of labour—high-risk, often invisible, emotionally and physically taxing, and survival-driven, undervalued, and often violently repressed. It draws connections between environmental defense, workplace safety, and the broader refusal to sacrifice human and non-human life for short and medium term economic profit.