Art installation? Photo op? You decide at another curiosity brought to you by Las Vegas, Nevada.
No one would be faulted for squinting at Seven Magic Mountains and saying, “What is that?” A friend mentioned it to me, and I stared at the pictures on Google Maps wondering what I was looking at. Towers of multicolored rocks rising above the desert scrub. And by colored, I mean brightly colored, almost neon. Why? What were they? How did they matter? Last Sunday, I went to see if I could figure it out.
I drove the thirty minutes south of the city, the highway quickly taking me to the barren desert. There were plenty of people out there traveling with me, and when I arrived at the Seven Magic Mountains site, there were plenty of people waiting. The parking lot was full of tourists. The west coast flavor – actually, more specifically, the L.A. flavor – was unmistakable. Interestingly, though, they were all unusually put-together. Women re-applied lipstick and adjusted boyfriends’ shirts. I walked the short distance to the seven colored rock towers glowing brightly against the green and dust colored landscape. In their shadows, tourists posed endlessly for their friends’ cameras. I could see no markers to give context to anything I was seeing. Why were we all here?
Looking up the site online, I found the official website. A renowned Swiss artist named Ugo Rondinone designed this public art installation. The only explanation for it I could find read: “A creative expression of human presence in the desert, Seven Magic Mountains punctuates the Mojave with a poetic burst of form and color.” It certainly was that: unnatural form surrounded by peacocking human presences.
I decided not to be cantankerous about it and read a few more art critiques by actual artists. By far, my favorite was this one by the New York Times. It pointed out that this art installation reflects Vegas itself: loud, bright, an unnatural human presence out of place in the desert surroundings. Suddenly, the significance dawned on me. Tourists in Las Vegas are drawn to this piece for the same reasons they’re drawn to Las Vegas itself. Part of the article told about two vacationers observing “a gal out here before posing in front of (Seven Magic Mountains) naked except for a scarf.” It is the flamboyance. Like Las Vegas, it is “the American Dream in drag.”
According to the article, natural weathering is fine. Graffiti and human intervention, though, is unwelcome.
~ The Dauntless Princess ~
