TOO BAD THE GOOD TIMES DON’T LAST

Organizer: Tressa Jones

 

Participants:

Elizabeth Klimek, Blake Sanders, Britta Urness, Christa Carlton, Elizabeth Dove, Robert Fleming Jason Clark, Kyle Peets, Karl LeClair, Mary Kenny, Dakota Nanton, Sukha Worob, Todd Christensen, Tressa Jones, Katherine Miller, Neal Ambrose-Smith, Rachel Livedalen 

ABSTRACT

Reinvention is cyclical. Alongside construction is decay, with alteration comes reincarnation, and after a boom there is always a bust.

Las Vegas is a microcosm of the boom/bust cycles that have shaped the history and culture of America’s West.

 

Within the casinos on the Las Vegas strip individuals seek the rush of a boom; their hopes and winnings go up however, this never lasts the bust will follow. A few dozen miles southeast of The Strip physical evidence of a bust can been seen in the landscape surrounding Lake Mead, the once largest reservoir in the United States formed by the Hoover Dam. This National Recreation Area and former premier vacation destination now teeters on becoming a ghost town of shored boats and neglected palm trees. In 2015 Lake Mead reached its lowest water level since it was built in the 1930’s. The water is gone, the visitors are leaving, the party is over.

 

From the gold mining days to the Bakkan Oil Fields America’s West has continuously been pillaged for resources to fuel the boom that ultimately has or will bust. The Las Vegas simulacrum reminds us that the good times don’t last.