Study for An End of the World No. 2, Part II

Before you read this entry, check out the post for Part 1 a little farther back on the blog.

The location of Jean Dry Lake Bed as a working space for Jean Tinguely's project was chosen for any number of reasons; Emily Scott posited that the site potentially functioned (for Tinguely) as an analogue for Yucca Flats, the site of numerous nuclear tests in the 1950s. As part of their research methodology and preparation for the project (and maybe some strange, misguided date night), would Jean and Niki have seen The Beast of Yucca Flats? I like to hope so. Tor Johnson cast as a defecting Russian scientist transformed into a monster by a nuclear explosion serving as inspiration for a self-destructive kinetic sculptural installation realized in the desert and then detonated? Perhaps.

Regardless, Jean Dry Lake Bed has been the location for numerous music videos, temporary projects, and while we were there, some awesome dirt biking. It was also the location of Michael Heizer's Rift 1, the first of his Nine Nevada Depressions, executed in 1968. More on Heizer soon.

Image: (top) stills from The Beast of Yucca Flats; (bottom) Michael Heizer, Rift 1 (1968), photo courtesy Jean-Pierre Hebert.

Study for An End of the World No. 2

Emily Scott, a PhD candidate at UCLA, recently came to Las Vegas to lecture on Land Art at the Historic Fifth Street School. The topic of her lecture (and dissertation) was a work that Jean Tinguely developed during his time here in Las Vegas in 1962 entitled Study for An End of the World No. 2. I'll go a little deeper into the entire project soon, but here's an image (top) of Jean working in the desert and us returning to the same area 48 years later.

Okay, it's been a few days since I wrote that, so here's more of the story: Tinguely (accompanied by his wife, the sculptor Niki de St. Phalle) was invited by NBC to do a project in Las Vegas. Tinguely and his entourage spent their time in town gathering materials from the city landfill (closed in 1999 having reached capacity after forty years of operation, the site is located east off of Vegas Valley, past Boulder Highway), then were given space at The Flamingo to fabricate the work, which was subsequently transported to Jean Dry Lake to be detonated. More soon.

Top image: Jean Tinguely at Jean Dry Lake in March 1962, by Allan Grant, courtesy LIFE.

Bottom images: Las Vegas Landfill (looking towards LV), images of objects collected on site, and Jean Dry Lake Bed, March 2010.