Warehouse Row is displaying State of the Union, an 18-piece collection of modern Civil War photography by artist Gregg Segal, this winter from Nov. 1 until Jan. 31. The artwork will be part of a strolling exhibit, with pieces displayed throughout the first floor of Warehouse Row’s North and South buildings and available for viewing during normal business hours from 10 a.
m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
“Warehouse Row has been a rich part of Chattanooga’s history for more than 100 years and now plays a key role in our city’s vibrant downtown,” said Kelly Scott, leasing manager at Warehouse Row. “The walls of our beautifully restored historic buildings, which stand on the land where Union forces constructed a stone fort during the war, are the perfect backdrop for a thought-provoking exhibit about the Civil War and modern culture.”
State of the Union is meant to evoke reflection on America’s past and present and demonstrate the juxtaposition of two contrastive eras: an idealized Civil War embodied by period re-enactor versus the commercialism of contemporary life. The exhibit will kick-off Chattanooga’s sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary celebration of the Civil War, with many more events taking place during 2013.
To complete the project, Gregg Segal worked with Robert Lee Hodge, a central figure among re-enactors and widely recognized as an authority on the Civil War. Over the course of a year, Hodge guided Segal to the actual sites of specific battles in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. One photograph in particular was shot locally inChattanooga in the Orchard Knob neighborhood, where the Battle of Orchard Knob took place in November of 1863.
“As a kid, I’d spend hours setting up and arranging toy soldiers, and then narrate the battle to whatever audience I could find,” said Mr. Segal. “State of the Union is sort of a grown-up version of a childhood game.”