Commemorative Difference: Public art and memory construction on the banks of the Tennessee River

Keywords: Landscape Geography, Geographies of Difference, Cultural Geographies, Material Culture
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

I evaluate conflicting interpretations and interactive patterns at The Passage in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Designed by the Oklahoma-based Cherokee artist collective, Team Gadugi, and led by Bill Glass Jr., this memorial fountain is the 2005 commemorative addition to the downtown waterfront part, Ross's Landing. For civic leaders and boosters like Mayor Bob Corker and the Chattanooga Times Free Press editorial board, The Passage communicated a welcome addition that enhanced Ross's Landing's aesthetic. Corker and the Chattanooga City Council believed that redesigning Ross's Landing and highlighting the Tennessee Aquarium would magnify Chattanooga's gravity in the southeast. And yet, Team Gadugi intended for The Passage to serve as the Cherokee's symbolic return to the Tennessee River Valley. Team Gadugi imagined that visitors would wade into the water rushing down the staircase and empathize with the symbolic tears that were cried during the Trail of Tears. Complicating these competing interpretations is that subsequent interactive patterns oscillate from somber remembrance to a public waterpark. Although the dominant expectations set by the city are to treat the site as one of recreation, because of the site's design, there is always a potential that visitors will interact with The Passage in the way Team Gadugi intended.