A Tourist's Devotional

2014

Video

In many ways, Las Vegas and Rome appear distinctly opposed: Rome is often positioned as a historical touchstone of Western cultural traditions, while Las Vegas exists in a state of continual reinvention and is closely associated with entertainment culture. As an artist and former resident of Las Vegas, I am attentive to the parallels between these cities, whose economies are largely driven by tourism and tied, albeit in very different ways, to the production and maintenance of fantasy.

I navigated these two landscapes from different positions, as a tourist in one and a local in the other. Drawing on the Christian ritual of baptism, a ritual associated with purification and rebirth, I use the language of transcendence to examine constructions of authenticity and to situate my own position within these contexts.