Week 4 // 'A Home in the Neon' // Air Guitar // Dave Hickey

Dave Hickey

Air Guitar – Essays on Art and Democracy is written by former art critic and writer Dave Hickey, from the research I have been doing Dave Hickey is a living legend in his field and a beautiful writer, the life he has lived and the people he has rubbed shoulders with over his career such as David Bowie gives an added awe to the content of his writings.  The  text in question for this blog is ‘A home in Neon’, the first essay from Air Guitar, in which he describes a place that is dear to his heart, Las Vegas.

Dave Hickey’s fondness of Las Vegas does make one wonder how different Vegas was in the 90’s as to now, due to the way in which he affirms it as being a place that truly felt like home. For him Vegas is almost utopic in the sense that it presents a social system very different to that of many other American cities at the time, there is no hint of social hierarchy, in fact when describing why his colleagues may not share the same love for Vegas he says, “I suspect that my unhappy colleagues are appalled by the fact that Vegas presents them with a flat-line social hierarchy”. As someone who wouldn’t say they share the same view on Vegas being a place that one could consider being home I can see the appeal here.


The draw of the city itself though in this case is shaped more by social construct as opposed to any form of architectural merit, the bright dazzling lights and knock offs of iconic structures, do create a glistening back drop to the abundance in entertainment on offer. However, is that a bad thing, is a city more than its physical parts, why do people stay in the towns or cities that they live? Could it be that living in the area they are, elevates them to a higher class in their thinking. Clearly Hickeys interests also stem from childhood memories, the influence of watching it “being discussed as a potential home by my dad’s jazz-musician buddies”, like for many at a childhood age, what we see our parents striving for or being interested in can have a huge influence on our own wants and desires either for better or for worst. 

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