What do you find in a Las Vegas salvage yard? Some
ready-made art that would have delighted Andy Warhol or Robert Rauschenberg.
Photographer Laura Domela saw beauty, nostalgia and rich archeological imagery
in these old-fashioned eye candy neon signs that were designed to lure pleasure
seekers of yesterday into realms of man-made dreams filled with hope, chance
and distraction.
Today, these flashing bulbs and tubes and painted metal hand-shaped boxes are
piled in the “neon boneyard”, replaced by laser beams, jumbotron screens and
pulsing LEDs.
These photos radiate the heat of the harsh desert sun, and
conjure all kinds of thoughts, including questions about beauty, attraction, and the links between technology and human desire.
— Jim Casper
