Lost Vegas: Tim Burton at The Neon Museum
In planning a trip to Las Vegas, I found that Tim Burton would be holding an exhibit at the Neon Museum. (Literally the day we got there it opened to the public.) Ecstatic already from the love of his movies, I figured the event had to be strange, dark and undoubtedly beautiful.
For those who don’t know, the exhibit features two separate parts:
General Admission: Guests get to experience a Stain Boy Sing-A-Long, a small indoor exhibit and a stroll through a jungle of historic Las Vegas light-up signs (also known as The Boneyard) and Burton-made sculptures, neon poems and a dome full of various seconds-long short films.
Brilliant!: Guests who sign up for this event will be exposed to a separate graveyard filled with signs from various era, in which they will experience a surrounding audio and visual presentation.
In anticipation of going to the museum, I began looking into what I assumed was the Burton exhibit I’d be seeing, just reassembled at the Neon Museum. It included photos of life-sized monster sculptures from some of his most famous works like Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas, preserved costumes and other pieces.
Looking back, I can’t help but ask myself how silly it was to ever think such a thing. That one art exhibit could be the same at another location? I mean, I’m not doubting that it’s never happened before, but is it common? Probably not.
Anyways, you can imagine the overload of excitement I actually felt learning that I was wrong. So wrong and so happy that I didn’t spoil a single thing for myself (as my boyfriend warned me of doing). Not only that, but after exploring the exhibits, I also discovered that this was the first exhibit Tim Burton had done in the United States in over a decade!
Holy moly. So, what brings an artist to pop-up shop in a small, unconventional Las Vegas museum of all places, after a 10-year hiatus from the U.S.? According to The Las Vegas Review-Journal, CEO and President of The Neon Museum Rob McCoy claims its because both the museum and Burton share world-leading unconventionality, and that Burton’s curator asked to be featured there, specifically.
“It’s a perfect match,” McCoy said at the The Neon Museum’s annual Boneyard Ball, which doubled as the opening party for Burton’s anticipated exhibit.
Not only did the artist and location ironically make a perfect fit for one another, but in Burton’s foreword to the art observer at the exhibit, we learn that Burton also had a connection to the city of Las Vegas itself.
According to Burton, Vegas was the place where he looked on in awe as a child at the Dunes’ seahorses and witnessed a woman turn into a gorilla. As he grew older, Burton would continue his trips to Vegas—he grew up a short drive away in Los Angeles—staying at a nearly abandoned Aladdin and even sneaking into the old YESCO sign “Boneyard.”
And of course, eventually filming the demolition of the Landmark Hotel for Mars Attacks!
Unfortunately, like all city dwellers or lovers or even just visitors might notice, everything changes. This is what the Lost Vegas experience was about to Burton:
And I really don’t want to spoil more than what I already have with my photos and vague descriptions, but trust me, Burton accomplishes just that. In the main Boneyard exhibit, I was surprised and taken aback by how well Burton’s additions accompanied the existing structures, without either entity taking away from another.
I thoroughly enjoyed seeing some of his original creations come to life in their movie-home setting, and how new creations were made to pair with old Las Vegas signs, though always keeping a Burton-style. I loved having to search for his work—how something might be right in front of you, but another character would be semi-hidden behind a sign corner, or without giving too much away, a message within the signs themselves.
Although the exhibits shouldn’t be compared, as they are completely different experiences, Brilliant! might have been my favorite as it brought tears to my eyes and even thinking about it now as I write this over two weeks since my initial experience, I’m still fighting to keep them back.
Burton elegantly tied Las Vegas history, skits from his movies, and even music from his favorite band, The Killers, into a 25-minute-long light-projection show. However, this wasn’t the projection you might see in school or a continued film roll in a contemporary art museum.
This was strategically placed visuals. This was a story told through a well-thought out soundtrack. This was walking around, doing circles and crying because nothing had ever been so beautifully brought back to life like anything you’d ever seen or literally experienced during your entire existence. It was like walking down a secret Strip, but so, so much more.
I wish I could tell you every detail, but I won’t. You’ll either have to look up those spoilers for yourself or visit the The Neon Museum before Feb. 15 2020, when the Lost Vegas exhibit period expires.
I highly suggest it if you’re a Burton fan—whether it’s for his movies, his animation, his art or even if you’re just in or near Las Vegas—go for the history, the beauty and the weird that undoubtedly encompasses that city. Open your eyes and your mind to something strange and something great that isn’t just a brightly lit slot machine or casino-based show. See it for yourself and you’ll know.
Article written by Destiny Johnson
Destiny writes about true crime and thrillers. She likes movies that make you question the world around you, that keep you wondering, curious and even fearful.
Throughout the decades, slasher film villains have had their fair share of bizarre motivations for committing violence. In Jamie Langlands’s The R.I.P Man, killer Alden Pick gathers the teeth of his victims to put in his own toothless mouth in deference to an obscure medieval Italian clan of misfits.