Its festival cred is likely cooler than yours: The Big Rig Jig has schlepped to Burning Man and Coachella and Banksy’s purposefully bleak art installation-cum-temporary “bemusement” park, Dismaland. Next, the 50-foot-tall, 25-ton sculpture will settle on Fremont Street, in the Downtown Project-owned Fergusons Motel lot.
Like the Container Park’s fiery praying mantis, purchasing the Big Rig Jig is another coup for Downtown Project founder (and Burning Man devotee) Tony Hsieh and his plan to imbue the city’s center with the Northern Nevada festival’s artwork and ideas.
"The Big Rig Jig will be making its appearance in Downtown Vegas later this year," Hsieh says. "In the meantime, curious festival-goers may stumble upon a Banksy installation during the upcoming Life Is Beautiful Festival.”
The Jig, created by LA artist Mike Ross, was built from two tanker trucks for Burning Man 2007. With one truck bent and balanced atop another, the massive sculpture appears graceful, harkening acrobats or figure skaters with its fluid form. And you can explore inside of it. “The work serves both as a sculpture and an architectural space,” Ross’ website says. “Visitors may enter the lower truck, climb through the tankers and emerge through a portal at the top. The rear axles of the upper tanker serve as a viewing platform, 42 feet in the air.”
No word on whether the public will be allowed to take that tour, but as one Las Vegan commented on Downtown Project’s Facebook page: “I’m going. That’s all [there is] to it.”
