A Hypersensitive Artist in Sin City (With Photos)
A photo essay documenting my recent adventures in Las Vegas
Hello, friends.
Just back from Las Vegas. Honestly I was dreading the trip because I knew exactly what to expect. Last year’s trip drained me. So this time I came to Sin City with a plan.
I guess I’ve been in denial my whole life. Or maybe I just never had the word to describe it. Hypersensitivity. That diagnosis is the key that explains how I became what I am. Inner demons and all.
Hypersensitivity means that all the stimulations that attract other humans to Vegas, are the triggers that send my brain into freeze/flight/fight mode. No, Las Vegas is not a place I look forward to. It means voluntarily letting my senses be blasted way beyond my comfort zone. But like I said, this time I had a plan…
Noise cancelling headphones. Calm, familiar music. Comfortable shoes. Coffee to go. And no destination or time limit. This was enough to give me a safe bubble where I could wander aimlessly, alone with my thoughts and my camera with minimal sensory overload. And it was great. It transformed the strip from barely bearable to a delightful adventure. Here’s what I did…
As I wandered the city I tried to make sense of the nonsense.
I watched people.
I got away from the speakers so that I can hear the white noise of the city. I looked for human moments, alien as they may seem.
I laughed at the absurdity that other people take for granted. I tried to understand how things became the way they are.
I studied the buses and buildings. I get lost. I asked myself questions like, “Is Las Vegas an ugly city?”
“Who cleans up the mess?”
How do you avoid sensory overload in a place that is designed to overload your senses?
I looked for the beauty that hides in plain sight.
And of course I documented my unconventional art experiments:
For example, I vandalized the art in my hotel room.
I covered slot machines with single frames of animation.
I stumbled across a 14 foot piece of artwork by Robert Rauschenberg and debated whether or not I should deface it with my Infestation graffiti.
I looked for surfaces to infest with my butterflies, dragonflies, and cicadas.
I tend to be self-conscious when I take pictures where there are lots of people. I normally try to plan my graffiti excursions so that I encounter as few people as possible. But in Vegas nobody cares. Everyone’s a tourist, and a guy filming himself with his stickers isn’t in the top 50 strangest things happening on the strip at any moment. It’s like you are invisible. Once you realize that nobody cares, it reduces your anxiety significantly.
I’ll be sharing more stories from my time in Las Vegas on YouTube and Instagram in the coming weeks. Consider following me if you don’t already.
Thanks for reading. Stay creative.
Your friend,
Ade