ABSTRACT
The U.S. Capitol building, home of American democracy and a global symbol of freedom, is one of the most recognisable buildings in the world. On January 6, 2021, the Capitol was stormed by a misdirected mob in a deadly riot. In the immediate wake of the attack, the U.S. Congress passed a measure to wind the building tightly with wire fencing to stave off further attack. As fears grew, further acts were passed, to utilise the wire fencing as reinforcing mesh to be cast inside structural sealing materials—wax, rubber, polyurethanes, and resins, deployed by vast military resources delivered by land and air—sealing the Capitol from continued fear of further external threat. Internal political contradictions continued to breed and intensify within this airtight enclosure; the Capitol preserved from without, but still maintaining seeds of self-contamination within. It began to rot. “I Can’t Breathe!” suffocated the pilasters, “Stop The Steal!” eroded the columns, “Build The Wall!” toppled the crowning Statue of Freedom hard onto the ground. The rot grew and consumed all internal substance, until eventually, only the ghost-like sealing shell itself was left. Observers noted that the inside surfaces of the shell retained clearly cast traces of the original Capitol detail. The solid materiality of free society had disappeared, casting only its memory into immortal translucent interiority (Figures 23.1, 23.2, and 23.3).
