The upper echelons of the art world have all gathered in Las Vegas this week, as taste-makers, philanthropists and reporters eagerly look to Wednesday’s unveiling of Seven Magic Mountains, Ugo Rondinone‘s ambitious new public art installation in the Nevada desert.
The work, presented by the Art Production Fund and Nevada Museum of Art, was reportedly five years in the making. It consists of seven colossal stone forms in various day-glo colors that resemble “hoodoos,” also called “tent rocks” and “earth pyramids,” which are tall, thin spires of rock that protrude from drainage basins.
The installation is situated on the far southern end of Las Vegas Boulevard along Interstate 15, about half an hour from downtown Las Vegas. “Not that anyone would need a sign to find [it],” as the Las Vegas Review Journal puts it.
Situated within the Ivanpah Valley and surrounded by mountains, the work will be on view for two years.
The artwork consists of locally-sourced limestone boulders, stacked vertically in groups ranging from between three and six rocks. Each stone sports a different fluorescent color and heights range from 30- to 35-feet high.
The work continues Rondinone’s fascination with natural phenomena and reformulating it in art. The work “elicits continuities and solidarities bewteen human and nature, artificial and natural, then and now, according to a statement from the artist.”
Ugo Rondinone, Seven Magic Mountains.
The work is just a short distance from Nevada’s famous Jean Dry Lake where Jean Tinguely and Michael Heizer created significant sculptures.
Nevada Museum of Art Director David Walker told artnet News via email, “Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains, as part of the continuum of land art, is important to the history of Nevada, and certainly figures into our Museum’s focus.”
“Seven Magic Mountains invites the Nevada community and beyond to a meaningful experience and dialogue through art,” Art Production Fund co-founder Doreen Remen told artnet News in an email. “It’s been a privilege working with Ugo over the past five years and manifesting his vision.”