Ugo Rondinone, a contemporary artist from Switzerland, teamed with the NOMA (Nevada Museum of Art) to put seven thirty-five foot colorful boulder totems in the desert in Henderson. This beautiful installation is about ten miles off the Las Vegas strip.
My first introduction to Ugo’s work was a smaller version of these boulders in Miami, FL just off South Beach. At the time I wasn’t aware of who the artist was so I googled “stacked colorful boulders” and some of his other works came up in my search. When I first seen images of this particular installation on social media I knew the works looked familiar so I researched the actual installation in Vegas.
Let me just say the images of this installation do it no justice. Standing at the bottom of a thirty-five foot totem is intimidating in itself, but the bright and unnatural colors of the rocks contrasting one off of another is a beautiful experience.
I saw parents picking up their children and placing them on the bottom boulders (as far as they could reach lol) to photograph them. I saw children stacking loose rocks in the distance to emulate Ugo’s design. The surrounding area is actual desert so it was beautiful scenery to take pictures of the mountains, cactus, and dry land. The watch for snakes signs were a bit scary at first but I never did come across any.
My biggest goal in documenting all of my artful trips is to expose my followers and viewers to art events, museums, scenes they weren’t aware of. I want my people to begin to look at art as a source of entertainment and not just an extended form of education.