PHOTO + VIDEO > A TOURIST'S DEVOTIONAL
A TOURIST'S DEVOTIONAL
A Tourist's Devotional
2014
Video
In many ways, Las Vegas and Rome appear distinctly opposed: Rome is an historical touchstone of Western society and archetype of high culture, Las Vegas is in a state of perpetual newness and rebirth and is the quintessence of entertainment culture. As an artist and a former resident of Las Vegas, I am attentive to the similarities between these cities whose economies are primarily driven by tourism and tied, albeit in very separate ways, to a maintenance of fantasy.
Native to neither, I inserted myself into the landscapes of both — engaging as a tourist in one, a local in the other. Taking cues from the Christian baptism ritual, a common theme in High Art and a practice deeply infused in Western spiritual identity, I employ the motifs of transcendence and rebirth to investigate spectacles of authenticity and to examine my own social embeddedness.
2014
Video
In many ways, Las Vegas and Rome appear distinctly opposed: Rome is an historical touchstone of Western society and archetype of high culture, Las Vegas is in a state of perpetual newness and rebirth and is the quintessence of entertainment culture. As an artist and a former resident of Las Vegas, I am attentive to the similarities between these cities whose economies are primarily driven by tourism and tied, albeit in very separate ways, to a maintenance of fantasy.
Native to neither, I inserted myself into the landscapes of both — engaging as a tourist in one, a local in the other. Taking cues from the Christian baptism ritual, a common theme in High Art and a practice deeply infused in Western spiritual identity, I employ the motifs of transcendence and rebirth to investigate spectacles of authenticity and to examine my own social embeddedness.