NEVADA VERNACULAR: PART 4, ARTIFACTS
One more point that needs to be made about vernacular: it isn’t just about what the place does with its own history, or how others regard the place, but what it makes of others’ history. Like a lot of American cities Reno has taken what it wanted from the rest of the world and made it its own. Displaying a genuine, classical Roman statue wouldn’t work in Reno but a fake one does because it supports that carefully nurtured appearance of artificiality the downtown area has relied on for so long. To be authentically vernacular an object must flaunt its fakery. Something similar can be said for the old neon signs. The more neglected they look, the more they evoke a time and place no one has actually experienced
One more point that needs to be made about vernacular: it isn’t just about what the place does with its own history, or how others regard the place, but what it makes of others’ history. Like a lot of American cities Reno has taken what it wanted from the rest of the world and made it its own. Displaying a genuine, classical Roman statue wouldn’t work in Reno but a fake one does because it supports that carefully nurtured appearance of artificiality the downtown area has relied on for so long. To be authentically vernacular an object must flaunt its fakery. Something similar can be said for the old neon signs. The more neglected they look, the more they evoke a time and place no one has actually experienced
