“In Relative Obscurity” is a Sound Art project by Brian C. Gibson & John McVay, granted in part by Nevada Arts Council.
About 5 miles east of Death Valley one can find world famous ghost town, Rhyolite, NV. Originally established in 1904 during the peak of the Gold Rush era, the town grew rapidly alongside other nearby boomtowns such as Tonopah and Beatty.
Many of the original buildings still stand, including the ruins of the jail, train depot, and a three-story bank building. The bank remnants were used in the shoot of Alanis Morissette‘s iconic “You Oughta Know” music video.
…and that is the reason I chose Rhyolite, Nevada for my sound project.
Just kidding.
Rhyolite Church of the Good Shepherd was also a “thing” in the short life of Rhyolite. It is told that it was abandoned along with the rest of the town. The population seemed to have left the town as quickly as they settled.
In 1984, Rhyolite, NV was chosen as the location Belgian artist Albert Szukalski would create “The Last Supper”, a sculptural interpretation of the famous Da Vinci painting of the same name. Though in 2000, Albert Szukalski dies in Antwerp, Belgium, and it was then that Goldwell Open Air Museum was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in Nevada and achieves 501(c)3 tax exempt status from IRS.
I had crossed paths with the Executive Director for nonprofit organization Goldwell Open Air Museum, Suzanne Hackett-Morgan during my Artist In Residency experience I had at Core Contemporary Gallery in 2021. When I finally met with her for lunch months later, we hit it off almost immediately.
It would be almost a year later that I would be voted onto to the Board Of Directors as Secretary for the organization. Former UNLV Architecture Professor and AssemblageStudio Founder, Eric Strain was also added to the Board as President.
That same month I would meet recent UNLV BFA graduate John McVay who would prove to be a key component in my ability to start curating sound art performances.
Jumping into learning about the dense history that has been being made in this unique pocket of the Armagosa Valley has inevitably given way to even more actualized interest in utilizing the space and Goldwell’s Big Red Barn facility.
This is precisely where John comes in.
For years, I had the notion that sound art would be a unique and fresh addition to the food truck dominated nature of the First Friday DTLV Arts Festival, and it was First Friday in August that I hosted John McVay‘s conceptual sound art project Frontier Days. I was beyond pleased with his performance and you can check that out in it’s entirety; here
The same month I was elected onto the Goldwell Board Of Directors, I had the most professional exhibition of my career so far, shown in a hidden gem of a room between Berlin Bar and Bungalow Coffee, called “Suite 150”.
This vacant suite is where I was to show the works I’d made since the beginning of ’22, though most notably; the paintings made during my residency experience with The Cube Gallery.
The exhibition was named, “Automatische Narr“; a proverbial nod to my time spent in Berlin, Germany recording audio/video & a jab at the unique situation I had found myself in last Summer.
Now a year into my time as Secretary for Goldwell Open Air Museum; I have the opportunity to use Rhyolite, NV to create what I think is art and to do it “in relative obscurity”; as did it’s founder.
Funded in part by Nevada Arts Council FY23 & having a platform via A S A P Gallery, I can use this to make my project more approachable for the viewer, as a sense of professionalism is now being required by the new opportunities I am applying for.
Just as Albert Szukalski did in 1984, and his friends in the years following; Suzanne Hackett-Morgan & the team behind the biennial desert arts festival, Bullfrog Biennial followed suit & chose to create here for a purpose, honoring the tradition that started when Albert installed The Last Supper, the group driving Goldwell Open Air Museum is not only ensuring preservation of the works done by artists that have come and gone; they are actively leaving their footprint, and that is certainly what Albert would have wanted, and it’s undoubtedly what Suzanne is promising to do, as a new era begins to creep into the cultural organization’s core moral standing.
People come to Rhyolite to see history decimated into the sand pile it currently is. John & I look forward to inevitably portraying this site specific audio/video portrait of the town’s current form and uniquely presenting that in ASAP gallery this Fall.
I am excited to properly document John McVay’s initial interactions with the Big Red Barn and the space’s close surroundings this Summer, as well as preparing the A S A P Gallery space in a way sure to be worth seeing; and hearing.
Happening this September in New Orleans Square, downtown Las Vegas, NV.