WHAT? Photo exhibit of vanishing Las Vegas
WHEN? Until Sunday, December 23rd
WHERE? Galerie le 1040, 1040 Marie Anne East
We’ve written about kitsch in Montreal, but what about the kitsch capital of the world, Las Vegas? If you have some time to kill this weekend, you might consider a foray into the Plateau to catch the final days of Westmount photographer John Archer’s week-long exhibition, Once Vegas: Motels, swimming pools and trailer parks. Archer has trained his lens on the “off, off the strip” districts of Vegas to capture the city’s fast-disappearing postwar landscape.
“Here is an area where motels once enticed drivers into the city with offers of a bed and a pool with names such as the Blackjack Motel, Eden’s Hotel or the ever-tempting Par-a dice Motel. And if they planned to stay awhile they could stake a longer term plot at the Gambler’s Trailer Park or even at Trailerdale,” reported the Westmount Examiner in a preview of Archer’s exhibition.
Once Vegas, which is sponsored by McGill’s Institute for the Study of Canada (my alma mater, by pure coincidence), is being shown at Galerie le 1040, at 1040 Marie Anne East. It runs until Sunday.