They’re distorted, but they’re real

Friday, April 6, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

Anyone who thinks Las Vegas couldn't seem any less real than it already is ought to take a look at Olivo Barbieri's aerial photographs of our giant landmarks, both man-made and natural.

The Italian photographer, known for distorting perceptions of international sites, came to Las Vegas two years ago to shoot our city from above.

The result is breathtaking views of something familiar, but quite peculiar.

"The delight is when people look at his work and think it's miniature," says Jason Halter of Wonder Inc., who was an executive producer on the accompanying Las Vegas film project. "It's like a suspension of disbelief."

We'd expect small buildings and ant-size people in aerial photos shot from a helicopter 300 feet or more above the ground, but Barbieri takes it further by using a tilt-shift lens that helps him manipulate the depth of field, something he refers to as selective focus. In the Las Vegas images, the stark sunlight helps intensify the effect by washing out more details.

What we believe to be architectural models of the Neon Boneyard, pools at Caesars Palace and Paris Las Vegas and an overview of Red Rock Canyon are in fact the real thing.

" Site specific_Las Vegas 2005, " opening today at G-C Arts, 1217 S. Main St., has been shown throughout the world. Tonight's artist reception will include a 35 mm film from above Las Vegas, shot in the same style as the photographs. The film has been shown at dozens of film festivals and museums, most recently the Museum of Modern Art.

When Barbieri considered shooting North America, a colleague suggested Las Vegas because of its scale and the idea that "it's an essay in fantasy and disbelief," Halter says.

Indeed, the Las Vegas images seem more distorted than those of other cities, a result Halter attributes to the hyperscaled buildings, surrounded by much smaller objects - scaling down "the mythology of the thing in the landscape."

But the miniature world is merely a byproduct of Barbieri's efforts to show something from a different perspective, Halter says.

Details: Opening reception, 6 to 8 tonight with a free screening of the short film, "site specific_Las Vegas 05" at 7 p.m. at G-C Arts, 452-2200.

Storytelling in 3-D

When Eames Demetrios was thrown out of the Harvard University film department, he was told it was because his project "stood outside the river of life."

When asked about it a few days ago, Demetrios, who graduated from the university in 1984, said, "I still don't know what that means."

We could argue that his current project stands outside the river of life, given that it takes place in an alternate universe existing in Demetrios' mind and manifests in little plaques planted across the United States.

Demetrios, a Los Angeles artist, filmmaker and design consultant, calls it three-dimensional storytelling.

Kymaerica, the alternate universe he has created, is divided by nations called "gwomes" and filled with fictional histories, peoples, folklore and language.

Seems kind of Tolkien, but this story doesn't come bound as a complete narrative. It exists in small fragments bolted to buildings, stones or jutting from the ground. As Demetrios says, "It's like writing a novel, but having different pages in different cities."

"I like the idea of creating the world before the narrative. There is definitely an overarching story, but it's going to take a long time to get to."

Twenty-nine plaques have been placed, including in Paris and London. In February 2006, Demetrios installed a bronze Kymaerica plaque in the Goldwell Open Air Museum that abuts the ghost town Rhyolite near Beatty. He'll be in town next week to discuss the project, the plaque and his Kymaerican Travel Guide.

He renamed Rhyolite "Rhyoleind" and determined it the capital of the area named for Rhyolier, a harvested lighter-than-air mineral.

"Now you have the real story," says Demetrios, who hopes to inspire a fresh look at familiar landscape for a "richer experience. It reorients the active theme."

Sound crazy? Maybe.

But Demetrios, who is the grandson of industrial designers Charles and Ray Eames, creators of the famous Eames chair, says, "Nobody ever stormed out of 'Star Wars' a half hour into the movie and said, 'This isn't true.' "

Details: Eames Demetrios lecture, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sahara West Library, 9600 W. Sahara Ave., free. www.kymaerica.com.