The Jetsons Meet the Restonians: Our Latest Public Art Project

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:

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.

This bus looks sad. More dramatic tension.

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.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

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.)