The Sun has a funny account of concerns raised about a mural commissioned by The Las Vegas Centennial Commission. The mural created by Los Angeles artist Alexis Smith is titled "The Scarlet Letter" and depicts---big surprise--- a woman and a letter A. Centennial Commissioner Steve Schorr complains in the article: " 'A' stands for adultery and we have worked so very hard to clean up that image, and now we're paying for that image." Not to get too pointy headed but perhaps Mr. Schorr should pick up a copy of Hawthorne's novel to remind himself that the book depicts the adulterous Hester Prynne as the true heroine and not the hypocritical puritanical community that condemned her. Speaking of which how exactly has Las Vegas been working against that image?

Last year the Hard Rock got in trouble for a billboard that read "There's always a temptation to cheat" and the casino's defense was that it was not encouraging cheating at gambling (a violation), but was instead encouraging cheating on spouses. By the way, that could also be implied by the official copyrighted slogan of Las Vegas "What happens here stays here." It is a scary thing when Mayor Oscar Goodman, also on the commission, is the voice of reason quoted in the article as saying the mural does represent Las Vegas. In the end, the mural was approved by a vote of 10-6 and will be put outside a public library on display where like most public art no one will ever think about it again.

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01:47 PM PT, Nov 17 2005 in censored art | Permalink | Comments (1)

Puritans in Las Vegas?