Hawk’s Nest Tunnel Under Construction

Unknown

Hawk’s Nest Tunnel Under Construction, 1930

Drilling through solid sandstone, the construction of the Hawks Nest Tunnel in West Virginia became the site of the worst industrial tragedies in United States history. Nearly 3000 men, including 2000 African American migrants from the South, labored at break-neck speed with no safety precautions to carve out the tunnel for Union Carbide’s electro-metallurgical power plant. Their work is seen in this stark black and white photograph showing the jagged, hard rock that was chipped away to create the cavernous route. The by-product of that labor also produced insidious silica dust. As hundreds of these young men were exposed to essentially breathing in glass, their lungs quickly hardened, and they died from acute silicosis. The calamity of Hawks Nest Tunnel received nationwide attention, with hundreds of lawsuits filed, congressional hearings and policy change enacted, and an artistic lamentation enacted through folk music and poetry. Label by Kelly Conway

The Agony of Gaia

Jeff Chapman-Crane, American, born 1953

The Agony of Gaia, 2004

Jeff Chapman-Crane is an Appalachia artist whose work illustrates the region’s culture and people. This sculpture depicts the destruction inflicted by MTM/VF on the earth as personified by Gaia, the earth-mother. Gaia curls up in pain as the mountains covering her body are destroyed, exposing her fragile skin. Her frame is indelibly altered from deforestation, explosives, leveling, and coalmining. Her upper body is the only remaining area with vegetation and life and even that is being forebodingly encroached upon by the mining activities. By anthropomorphizing the often invisible plight of MTM/VF, Chapman-Crane reminds of us of the universal harms shared by humans, animals, and nature alike. This depiction taps into the selfish, anthropocentric human mindset that often overlooks environmental injustice until it is unavoidably and obtrusively threatening humans. Exposing Gaia and revealing the normally neglected, forgotten sacrifice zone calls us to protect humans, which now extends to the earth herself. Label by Tori Erisman

Chapman-Crane’s multimedia sculpture presents an allegory for mountain-top removal, rendering the Ancient Greek mythological figure Gaia, the ultimate personification of the Earth, as a woman in the fetal position in apparent pain. Along her curves are the mountains that have been stripped for the purposes of profit, this metaphor paralleled by her own nakedness. In line with ecofeminist theory, the artist points the blame of Gaia’s pain to a capitalistic, patriarchal mindset (manifested by the construction vehicles). Label by Courtney Hand

Steven and His Thousand Trucks

Cynthia Ryan Kelly, American

Steven and His Thousand Trucks, 2008

The man featured in this painting is the former governor of Kentucky, Steve Beshear. Cynthia Ryan Kelly lives in Kentucky and was disappointed with the support that mountaintop mining companies received from the governor. Governor Beshear established $300,000 of funds to use for coal education and to support the idea of mountaintop removal mining. The numerous trucks depicted in the work are coal trucks that are used to transport coal away from the mines. The money coming from the governor’s hands is the money that was used to promote positive coal education. This ties into one of the aspects of our readings of how the coal industry has such a large influence on politics. Label by Olivia Falb

Chroma S6 1

John Sabraw, American

Chroma S6 1, 2019

This is one of the pieces in the collection of “Unearthed Topographies,” dedicated to the hidden network of underground coal miners. Sabraw uses the acid mine drainage (AMD) extracted from the polluted streams in Ohio as the paint pigment of his artworks. This piece, along with others in the collection, is meant to symbolize the paradox of the coal mining industry, in which they are both the marvelous outcome of human intelligence and engineering and the symbol of our consumption and desire. Potentially a model for the future clean-up solution, this artwork collection is hoping to provide a closed-loop solution by extracting the pollutant out of the environment while providing eco jobs to the local communities. Label by Yifei He