Cleveland is usually very pertinent when it comes to environmental disasters. Most famous for the Burning River (Cuyahoga) which set the stage for the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Water Act Cleveland should be back in the news again for being way ahead of the curve.
One of Cleveland's most infamous landmarks is the FREE stamp, a 28 foot tall, 48 foot long statue created by Claus Oldenburg & Coosje Van Bruggen. While currently located on East 9th and West Lakeside Avenue the original location was to be at the lobby of the SOHIO (now owned by BP) Building on public square. According to the artists the statement "FREE" was in reference to the ideals of independence and liberty however during construction of the sculpture British Petroleum (see also the gigantic Gulf Oil Spill currently occurring) purchased SOHIO (Cleveland's Standard Oil) and the new management did not like the idea of pop art at their front door. Some inference can be made that stamping the earth "FREE" was not in the corporate ideology of British Petroleum, a company that makes it fortune by selling minerals extracted from the earth to the earth's inhabitants. Regardless there was much brouhaha and the stamp was redesigned for its new location having been "flung" from it's place of origin.
I like the sculpture.
However, as the news bombards us with tales of the environmental and economic devastation occurring in the Gulf Coast due to a major disaster at an oil rig operated by British Petroleum I cannot help but stare at the FREE Stamp, laying on its side, discarded, and wondering that this long twisted path we are already so far down leads away from the freedom and liberty we profess to love. How fitting that once again Cleveland can so neatly fit into the national consciousness when it come to environmental warnings about our future.
image borrowed from roadsideamerica.com
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