Analyzing landscapes has a long history within geography, but one that recently has come to mean the ‘making of a world’ not necessarily ‘that which can be seen from a particular vantage point.’ While I appreciate the nuanced place-making those landscapes as worlds create, I also believe that something has been lost in this shift. A peculiar scale that is at once personal and grand. This poster will compare the landscapes of the George Floyd Memorial (and nearby art installations) in Minneapolis, MN and Arlington National Cemetery. Neither memorial affords its visitors the ability to stand apart and ‘view the location in its entirety.’ Consequently, these memorials offer a view from the inside, one in which the body is always, necessarily in landscape. However, it is the scale of landscape that enables the viewer to see how these memorials, while incredibly personal, are politically mediated, manicured, controlled, and yet at the same time beautiful. In each case, many are struck by the beauty of the space, despite the sanctification of loss and state violence. These landscapes are affective, their power palpable.
Two memorials: Embodied landscapes of beauty and death
