In December, when the Gateway Motel was converted into a one-night-only art event with exhibits and installations in 20 rooms, you could reliably find visitors watching the entirety of a 14-minute video filmed by Ginger Bruner and Kathleen Nathan.
Simply put, Road Trip #1, now on display at Sin City Gallery, takes viewers to the Valley of Fire and back, through the rust-colored hues of the sandstone formations, returning to Las Vegas on Northshore Road. Whether designed as a comment on contemporary society—watchers rather than doers, virtual rather than real—or just a portrayal of the landscape here, it’s a beautifully recorded journey into the desert that begins midday and ends in the evening. The footage, edited by photographer Fred Sigmund and set to instrumental music chosen by Bruner, serves to remind of the world outside the sprawl.
“There is this whole wonderful time that happens when you get out into the desert and experience the silence, the space, the color and the light,” Nathan says. “We wanted to show people that it is really easy to get out of here.”
The test, however, will be if anyone heeds the advice and sets out for immersion in the landscape.
Road Trip #1 Through January 25; Wednesday-Saturday, 1-7 p.m. Sin City Gallery, 608-2461.
