Do you like to gamble? Our editor certainly does. Why else would he send us to Las Vegas for 48 hours with orders to file a 2,000-word report on hotel and casino art? He’s betting this piece will clinch our first Pulitzer in the vaunted field of travel journalism—and odds are he might be right.
As the authors of a long-running “Hard Truths” advice column and the “Hard Choices” series of interactive quizzes, our assignment came as a surprise. But in this age of continually defunded high culture we wondered: what does art look like when you leave Tribeca? Some writers go on Hajj to Marfa to feel the minimalist wind blow sand into their eyes, while others schlep Brooklinen tote bags as they chase biennials across small European cities. Being earnest art-world advice columnists, we prefer to explore more democratic forms of visual culture—the kind that ribaldly stages a two-hour revue called The Empire Strips Back: A Burlesque Parody. (Tragically, that show was sold out when we were in town. Not even press passes could get us in. So much for democracy.)
In terms of aesthetics and curatorial vision, nearly every stop on our compressed three-day trip was its own Gesamtkunstwerk—created by people who have, in general, cast off the shackles of fine art and haughty museum models. We found art functioning less as a critical statement and more as ecstatic ambience within the highly trafficked mega-casinos and downtown haunts frequented by locals. Once you are in Sin City, age-old debates about high vs. low and authentic vs. commodified culture simply do not apply. Art in Vegas doesn’t judge; it seduces. The real Vegas experience is a confectionary collision of art and entertainment wrapped in a glitter-drenched, aggressively carpeted hallucination. One of the most important lessons we learned is that the art here must be “hospitality grade”—able to withstand the splash zone of cocktails, bodily fluids, and blissed-out detritus, all while maintaining a positive guest experience.
Here, then, are our Hard Tripping highlights from a visit to the neon vortex…
