Topless

With an ‘anything goes’ policy at Columbia College Chicago, I was half expecting to see torsos and skin in some type of artsy medium at the current exhibit entitled Topless USA. This “critical encounter” event is currently being shown on the 2nd floor of the library at 624 S. Michigan Ave. The afterthought of a space should have been a dead giveaway that this had nothing to do with sexuality, but instead on Mountaintop removal.
Jeff Chapman Crane is the artist whose work is represented with one clay sculpture and a handful of paintings with a message of the destruction of mother earth. “The Agony of Gaia (Mother Earth),” the centerpiece of the show, cleverly depicts mother earth lying on her side forming a mountain. “I believe the earth is a living thing…I wanted to do a piece that conveyed the torment she must feel when she is abused this way,” reads a statement by the artist.
She is in a fetal position with natural elements of twigs, moss and sand covering her body. Her hands are covering her face and bulldozers and tractors are ravaging her legs and midsection. Streams of tears fall down her face as earth-moving machines ravage her midsection exposing her ribs smattered with blood. The sky is beautiful and blue at her head and storm ridden and gray the further down the body/mountain you go.
Proponents of mountaintop removal claim jobs and roadways, and land to build is why this is so necessary in the rural landscapes of Kentucky in particular, as well as other Appalachia residents. Without this their economy would be nonexistent and coal mining and steel would suffer.
Besides the Gaia piece there are several paintings of native people of the Appalachia. Some of the residents want to preserve the mountains and have future generations cherish what they have come to love while other residents only care about wealth and getting ahead regardless of destruction of natural resources. In one piece a man is shown confident and smug, wealthy and an obvious benefactor of the mountaintop clearing. Another shows a young girl taken in by the beautiful mountains around her. The show is clear to show both sides, but with a focus of anti-top removal.
It is clear that this Kentucky native is passionate about mountaintop removal and its affects on the land. Leaflets inform the viewer how terrible this practice really is. Mines blast the mountaintop off creating landslides, rubble and debris to pollute waterways and neighboring valleys of the site. Without the “Agony of the Gaia” piece this show would be worth missing and instead read up on. It highlights the issues of how the removal destroys the landscape we need to protect, and with Earth Day looming now is the perfect time to visit this insightful exhibit.