Way back in Reston's Golden Age, when the Silver Line was still a dream we could only clap for, we would pore over the design documents and behold the breathtaking vision for Reston's 21st century future. And it was rad!
BEHOLD, what might have been at the Wiehle Reston Metro Station, instead of a giant LCD screen showing fish and whatnot. You can sense the '80s vibes.
Clean. Edgy, in a tasteful pastel sort of way. Never happened for reasons known only to God and WMATA. But the second phase of the Silver Line did include a different An Art for the RTC Metro Station, which was completed last year. This An Art reflects a... different vision.
Behold "Ethos." No clean lines. No pastels. Something vaguely cyber-y? If only there was an explanation to help us comprehend this An Art! Oh, wait:
Completed in 2024, the design was inspired by the founder of Reston — Robert E. Simon — and the statement that “You can’t have a Utopia of one.” The artwork, inspired by these interactions, is multifaceted and thought of as a dialogue in which everyone can participate. Bates' design for the station can be seen as referencing artistic movements and philosophies such as Brutalism, Modernism, Wabi-Sabi, and Universal Constructivism, or as an echo of the biophilic character of Reston's history of natural and environmental integration, growth, and togetherness. It may also be experienced as a representation of emotional delight, as the "Play" from the "Live, Work, Play" maxim of Reston's founding vision.
IT MAY. To us, it looks like something that would be used on an album cover for some '90s grunge band. There's an old saying that the 1980s was basically a reboot of the 1950s and the 1990s was the same for the 1960s. So if the ought-teens were the '80s and the ought-twenties are the '90s, who knows what will be in vogue in just five years time? An homage to reality TV? Land wars in Asia? Green Day cover bands? The mind boggles.
But we digress. This An Art was nominated for a fancy award, but sadly, it lost to other An Arts with names like "Cloud Puncher" and "Elder Mother". But do those An Arts allow people to peer through them, metaphorically speaking, and see the monolithic earth-toned pillar of a Metro station totem sticking out like the proverbial sore thumb? WE THINK NOT.
Meanwhile, across town (or at least down Sunset Hills), another An Art was unveiled earlier this month. Called "Building Bridges," it is a replica of An Art in Venice, only instead of romantic sun-flecked canals navigated by singing gondoliers in striped shirts we have endless traffic crammed into one lane as cranes work to finish the fancy mauvescraper it sits in front of. BEHOLD:
We could have had woonerf in this very spot, but instead we got this scaled down version of An Art. Again, we are not bright enough to understand the meaning of this An Art without some blockquote. Oh, wait:
“I want this sculpture to spread love and to make us realize that, really, skin-deep we are all the same. It doesn’t matter where we come from or our background—it’s important to work together to bring the world together. There are so many wonderful, good-hearted people who need to work together to make this a better world. When we work together, humanity achieves greatness.”
True true, as the kids today might have said as recently as six months ago, before devolving into polyglot phrases such as "Skibidi." Anyhoo, expose yourself to your nearest An Art, we guess, the end.
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