Back in January, we told you about Chicago's Museum of Modern Ice, which was more a month-long outdoor festival than an actual museum, and now the Windy City is continuing with the theme, this time bringing an icy exhibition to The Field Museum. With a title that we suspect represents the top three finishers in a 'Name the exhibition!' contest, "Melting Ice -- A Hot Topic: Envisioning Change" features works by 26 contemporary artists from 10 countries. Ranging from photographs and paintings to sculptures and video installations, the works all focus on climate change, specifically melting ice caps and their effects on the planet. The exhibition, which runs through September 1, is presented in partnership with the Natural World Museum and the United Nations Environment Programme.

Among the artists represented are Chris Jordan (who led off February's Greener Gadgets conference with digitally-manipulated images of trash), digital media artist Andrea Polli, sculptor David Nash, and a collective known as the Icelandic Love Corporation, which sounds like a Reykjavik-based ABBA cover band but is in fact three artists who produce performance and video pieces. Dalibor Martinis contributes "Circles Between Surfaces" (pictured above, at left), an installation in which a drop of water falls from the ceiling and briefly disturbs both the surface of the water and the electronic image projected above it. But it's not all Zen dripping and Bjork-like ice fairies. Asked by the Los Angeles Times to reflect on the show's intentions, artist Philip Pastor said, "The purpose is to shock people -- shock them into fear."