Art scene looking up downtown

By Kristen Peterson (contact)

Thursday, June 7, 2007 | 6 a.m.

America's carnival is taking place under the Fremont Street Canopy. Every bad stereotype about Las Vegas is being lived out. Yes, there is a woman with a fanny pack embroidered with cats, a guy wearing a 3-foot drink strapped to his body and babies in strollers being wheeled out of the smoky casinos so their parents can get a better look at the show above them.

The lights dim. Street music stops. We collectively whip out our digital cameras and turn our faces skyward. Most don't know this, but tonight is special. The Americans for the Arts organization is presenting a public art display on the canopy in conjunction with the group's annual meeting, held this year in Las Vegas.

We are mystified and dazzled by Haluk Akakce's sugar-coated wonderment, "Sky Is the Limit." Commerce has stopped. So, it seems, has time. Planted firmly we watch the high-pitched visceral experience of "confrontation between artificial and organic life."

The show ends. Crowds again swarm the "Watch me write on rice" jewelry booth like tourists flocking to, well, a cheap jewelry stand. The guy at the Name Art booth is not busy, even though he will paint your name decoratively for only $2 a letter. Maybe visitors are too distracted by the flashing lights and shiny trinkets to notice. They definitely don't see what is now happening above: It's stealthy. It's fleeting. It's hypnotic. It's Jenny Holzer.

Her phrases appear, then disappear, in bold white letters on the canopy: "You are so complex that you don't always respond to danger." "People who don't work with their hands are parasites."

"Protect me from what I want," which graced a sign on Caesars Palace in 1986, slides the length of the canopy. The big white letters slide the length of the canopy, disappearing before most tourists - save for the Americans for the Arts conference attendees - even notice.

Tourists hooked up at the oxygen bar stare at the words "Revive. Energize" and "Play hard, breathe deep" and "Oxygen - 10 minutes you'll never forget."

A woman walks by carrying a sign: "Jesus Christ will destroy sinners with cruel wrath and fierce anger."

Holzer's silent profundity continues. Fremont Street responds: "Breakfast $5.79, Lunch $6.49, Dinner $9.99." "Take your woman to a show." "Free beer with purchase of a T-shirt."

Holzer's "Men don't always protect you" and "In a dream you saw a way to survive and you were full of joy" disappear from the canopy.

We're left with "Vegas local wins $10,762," "Fear God," "Ante up."

Kristen Peterson can be reached at 259-2317 or at kristen@lasvegassun.com.