Photos by Andy and
Jenny Wood
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Crafting the Sacred atop the Profane
The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City ripped apart lives and shattered a community. A government structure, a sign of bureaucratic stability and permanence, became reduced to shards of broken glass and brick at 9:02 a.m., April 19, 1995.
In the wake of the bombing, in response to the open wound felt by some many victims and witnesses of this unprecedented act of terrorism on American soil, the homogenous world of everyday life cracked. In a 1996 visit to the site where the building once stood, I found myself amazed at the hundreds of people who journeyed to Oklahoma - like me - for reasons unknown even to themselves. The fence that separated visitors from the site was festooned with dolls and notes and other offerings. But the space where the building once stood was an empty ruin. In its place, the citizens of Oklahoma crafted a site of remembrance and commemoration. The result, the Oklahoma City National Memorial, is a moving attempt to infuse a sense of the sacred onto a location that had been so viciously profaned. Given our recent studies of sacred space, with particular emphasis on Mircea Eliade's The Sacred and the Profane, it seems appropriate that we study this architectural example of one community's response to tremendous grief.
Activity
Visit the Memorial Website's overhead view of the Oklahoma City National Memorial. Pay special attention to the intended symbolism of this site by exploring the Symbolic Concepts page.
Prior to class, select one sign from the Memorial and be prepared to describe it from a semiotic perspective. What kind of ideological narrative is enacted through its construction and architectural placement?
Other Resources
Time Magazine, How we Remember: "Some questions presented by the chairs: Is one supposed to sit in them? If so, does one sit to be close to the dead, to be in their place and assume their perspective? Does one sit in judgment, vigilance, serenity, longing? Does one sit in protest, as at a sit-in, against acts of terrorism and anarchy? Does one sit with America? And if one does not sit--and no one here, not a single visitor to the Oklahoma City National Memorial, makes a move to do so--then is it the chairs that do the sitting?"
U.S. News and World Report, An April to Remember: "The $10.3 million memorial features 168 granite and bronze chairs, each situated on a lighted glass block pedestal. A black reflecting pool and a survivors' wall, etched with the names of those who lived through the bombing, will round out the memorial on the 3.3-acre site. The monument will be dedicated at a morning ceremony for victims' families, survivors, and rescue workers and, again, at an afternoon public ceremony that may include President Clinton."