News and notes from Reston (tm).

Friday, October 18, 2013

The Jetsons Meet the Restonians: Our Latest Public Art Project

New mural.jpg

We've driven by Reston's newest (but no longer brand new) piece of public art festooning the condo-intensive quadrant of Reston Town Center so many times, we've sort of gotten used to the Jetsons-meets-Mayan Apocalyptic theme it's got going on. But, as semioticians and filthy "web loggers" are fond of asking, What Does It Mean? Let's "unpack" this piece of art, as the all the kool Ph.D. kids no longer say:

RTC.jpg
A slice of the RTC skyline, under a merciless and uncaring sun. No cyclist near the abandoned bicycle, no people enjoying lunch on their rooftop patio. Already, dramatic tension is creeping into our reading of the work.


Sad bus.jpg
This bus looks sad. More dramatic tension.


Planes and Cars.jpg
Maybe everyone's inside, trying to avoid the imminent collision of car and airplane in the skies above RTC, as a mini-Death Star/DRB drone looks on, suspended by a string.


No attention.jpg
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.


Triffids.jpg
And then there are the triffids, soon to arrive on the other side of Reston Town Center and devour us all surround RTC in public art on all sides.

Our reading? Art as harbinger of overdevelopment and doom? A much-needed spark of life in an otherwise bland forest of red brick and metal? A meditation on the depersonalization fostered by carbon-powered transit options? An excuse to make cheap shots about triffids?

Yes.

(Photo courtesy of Reston Confidential Operative "Joel," who told us we could probably "do better" in terms of photography. Clearly "Joel" doesn't know us that well, the end.)

2 comments:

  1. The artwork pretty much says it all

    Reston: The New Soulless Concrete Canyon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeppers. It's turning into a mini-Tysons. Proof that all the so-called planners working for the county and, by extension, for the developer interests have plum run out of ideas ...knew that it would happen one day, and it's time to vote with our feet.

      Delete

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