Flashbacks:
The RNGC Caddyshackpocalypse
Bollards!
No, you're not looking at some hip chewing gum ad from 1987, but the proposed artwork (PDF) that will greet passengers as they enter the Wiehle Avenue Metro station, once it's built sometime between 2013 and... well, never. (Could be worse -- if you live in Loudoun, the final push into that county's particleboard heartland won't be completed until December 2016 at the earliest, but probably more like 2018.. or maybe never.)
The Tysons stations get all kinds of bitchin' glowing cones and whatnot for their "public art," but the powers that be opted for this for Wiehle. You can almost see Don Johnson strolling through the station in slow motion, as some not-quite-edgy Glenn Frey song plays in the background. To be fair, artist David Wilson does a lot of work with stained glass, so we assume it will look a lot less pastel-like when it's finally built. Especially once the DRB gets their hands on these plans and requires the stained glass to be one of four approved earth tones.
News and notes from Reston (tm).
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Metro Silver Line: At the Wiehle station, all 80s all the time
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Wow. That is ugly.
ReplyDeleteI believe this artwork is proposed right now, no final decisions have been made. Also the part that contains the silhouette is a rough draft of what the passageway will look like, and I'm assuming as you leave the station you'll see the orange or blue or whatever color they decide on as an abstraction. I think it is one of these you have to see it to appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteHey, give me a contract to do the Wiehle artwork.
ReplyDeleteI can do a helluva lot better than that and I don't even own a paint brush, much less and easel.
I wish that they would go with the bare concrete motif that's decorating all of the other Metro stations. Every stop along the Orange line is done up the same way and, after years of commuting though these stations, it's grown on me. It's really aesthetically appealing in its own minimalist, functional way. And it's cheap, since concrete is the primary building material.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if we must decorate, we should avoid motifs that will be dated within 5 years of installation, and then need to be replaced in 10-15 years.
If you have ever ridden on the Moscow subway system, they have these lovely works of Socialist Realism adorning many of their stations. The artwork extolling the virtues of the masses and the Great Russian Way always seem so current. And they've lasted for more than 50 years in many cases.
Yep, that's what our station(s) need: statues of submachine gun toting partisans looking off in the distance, or a buff young factory workman in overalls wielding a mallet along side of a buxom farm maiden holding a sheaf of wheat and a sickle. Or maybe we could just park a combine out in front.
Silly me, I thought that the people were part of the artwork and they represented students in graduation robes. But then I couldn't figure out how the heck that represented Reston as a whole...
ReplyDeleteI like Convict's approach -- and the concrete panels are very mauve...
Oooh, is this from Ah-Ha's awesome 1980s music video "Take On Me"?!
ReplyDeleteWTF IS THAT?
ReplyDeleteI thought it had a graduation motif as well! Perhaps the artist is well-versed in local politics and intended it as a Trail of Tears for all those would-be Oakton students following last year's redistricting decision.
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ReplyDeleteEr, how about covering the walls with tasteful Patrick Nagel-motif posters?
ReplyDeletePer Gulag 4 Convict's comments about Socialist Realism, one of the Tyson's stops should definitely have a Capitalist Realism motif. Maybe a 200-foot high statue of Crystal Koons?
ReplyDeleteThis is a job for DRB. Let those maroons design it. Maybe it will keep them busy until 2016 and off our backs.
ReplyDeleteWith all the talented artists in Reston (visit GRACE exhibits!), you'd think they could find something more . . . palatable?
ReplyDeleteAack. The slanty lines give me vertigo. You really don't want to make people queasy before they even get on the Metro!
ReplyDeleteUgly begets ugly. If that's "art" we are doomed.
ReplyDeleteAnd the crowds! PIBs only (people dressed in black).
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