I only recently learned about this public art installation called "Seven Magic Mountains," which is described on the project's website as a "large scale desert artwork" outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. The artwork was created by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone and produced by the Nevada Museum of Art and Art Production Fund. The exhibition, which consists of seven thirty-foot-plus-tall towers made up of large boulders that are painted in bright colors, opened in May, 2016, with the intention of a two-year run. The exhibit is still going strong, however, and currently is slated to close May 31, 2027—so you still have some time to see it!
The Seven Magic Mountains website describes the placement of the artwork:
Seven Magic Mountains is situated within the Ivanpah Valley adjacent to Sheep Mountain and the McCullough, Bird Spring, and Goodsprings ranges of mountains. A creative expression of human presence in the desert, Seven Magic Mountains punctuates the Mojave with a poetic burst of form and color.
The Nevada Museum of Art website further describes the work:
The installation, comprised of seven individual towering sculptures, is situated on the far southern end of Las Vegas Boulevard along Interstate 15, approximately a half hour from downtown Las Vegas. Positioned within the Ivanpah Valley and surrounded by mountains, the piece will be on view for two years beginning May 11, 2016.
Mediating between geological formations and abstract compositions, Rondinone's Seven Magic Mountains consists of locally-sourced limestone boulders stacked vertically in groups ranging between three and six. Each stone boasts a different fluorescent color; each individual totem stands between thirty and thirty-five feet high.
The artwork extends Rondinone's long-running interest in natural phenomena and their reformulation in art. The titles and forms of his paintings and sculptures have frequently evoked primordial phenomena such as air, moons, the sun, and the cosmos. Referring concurrently to the natural world, romanticism, and existentialism, Seven Magic Mountains encapsulates a sort of mental trinity that has underpinned the artist's work for more than two decades. In a new iteration of themes and materials, Seven Magic Mountains creates a sense of romantic minimalism.
"Seven Magic Mountains elicits continuities and solidarities between human and nature, artificial and natural, then and now," states Rondinone.
I'm sure they aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I personally love this piece – I'll definitely stop and see it in person the next time I'm driving to Vegas!
