UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art
Las Vegas, Nevada
We believe everyone deserves access to art that challenges our understanding of the present and inspires us to create a future that makes space for us all.
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Ginger-Marie Wilkins, Laura Luna Amezquita
"Obscuring City"
2023
Situated not even centrally in Garden Valley, Nevada, Michael Heizer's "City", an enormous sculpture consisting of geometric forms, has an eclipsing quality over the natural beauty, resources, land, and even people that live in the area. Though poised as a work of cultural heritage and a boon that protects the state of Nevada from the transportation of nuclear refuse, the existence of the work drowns out searches for information on anything else - from the ecology to the other uses of the land appropriating - while claiming The Valley as "City".
"Obscuring City" discusses this odd relationship by encouraging the viewer to literally peel back the top layer - to look past "City" - to see beyond and find many creeks, ranches, and landforms, as well as the humans that inhabit Garden Valley, and to enjoy the contrast between this "futuristic" sculpture and the natural beauty of its surroundings.
"City" (1972 - 2022)
USGS 7.5 Minute Quadrangle Map
WATER GAP WEST, NV
- Created: c. 2023
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