Reichstag Dome
Visitors ascending the famous glass dome of the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building in Berlin, can peer down into the proceedings of the central hall - a physical embodiment of the post-war government's commitment to transparency - even as panes of mirrored glass bounce around shards of reflected blue sky that make visual interpretation of the dome space more elusive and multi-dimensional; a darting, flashing venue for beauty that puzzles the eye.
In this image, I initially re-interpreted the reflected panes to suggest the German flag, in tones of black, gold and red. Then I found myself introducing additional hues to evoke the nation's emerging cultural fragmentation, seemingly spinning outward, as though the Reichstag and the people it represented had become subject to centrifugal forces that, while beautiful together in the abstract, threatened to pull the place apart unless somehow contained within the nation's renewed social contract. From another angle, this image mirrors our fractious globe at large, whirling apart yet held together these days - just barely - by what's left of peaceable reason and the common good.
TITLE - "Reichstag Dome"
WHERE - Berlin, Germany (2015)