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Beneath the bright lights of the Las Vegas strip in a series of deadly flood tunnels, a community of mole people reside, turning the once dormant catacombs into not only their homes, but also a series of art galleries. A city consumed by extreme levels of wealth, the American Dream way of living has bread a homeless population of nearly 14,000 but, with only space for around 1000, many have turned to the treacherous flood tunnels underneath the affluent hotels and casinos. Three years ago a Nevada reporter, Matthew O’Brien, went in search of what lies beneath for his book, ‘Beneath The Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas’, and mentioned the discovery of an art space. O’Brien documented the tunnels and the makeshift art gallery he encountered full of bizarre sculptures and graffitied walls, noting that ‘art is most beautiful where you least expect it’.

The Las Vegas flood tunnels span around 200 miles but with no light source and the ever present threat of being drowned and washed away, very few have encountered this most ‘underground’ of art galleries. It is currently illegal to paint the tunnels yet no arm of the law has dared to reach down and enforce it, especially as graffiti is rife on the surface of the city, so it’s inhabitants have been free to create and decorate as much as they can, with no restrictions, guidelines, or monetary purpose.

It is believed that artists have been working in the tunnels for the past two decades, decorating the walls from floor to ceiling. Some works are simple tags, whereas others are more art historical pieces, referencing Cubism and Post-Modernism. With no curation and no reviews, artists come to enjoy the unlimited canvas and time they have to master their craft. Many graffiti artists go down to the tunnels after having been arrested for graffiting elsewhere, and though it is still illegal, and a highly dangerous location, they nonetheless enjoy the freedom. One graffiti artist, known as Iceberg Slick, stated to the Las Vegas Sun that the tunnels provide a place where kids can create, instead of destroying public property. The tunnels let them be artists, where they can find a form of validation without having to run from the police. Legal murals and street art galleries are becoming more common in Las Vegas, yet with so much stigma and vandalism attached to graffiti it is still for the majority treated as a crime.

The Las Vegas Strip boasts some of the most expensive and decadent hotels in the world, where on the rooftops and in penthouses money can buy you anything. Staying at Caesar’s Palace, for example, could set you back £5000 for one night, a price that thousands are willing to pay for the luxury and the celebrity watching that entail. Yet, directly beneath Caesar’s Palace, it is estimated, lies one of the larger art spaces of the labyrinth, where you’re more likely to find hypodermic needles and, as local legend has it, a weapon-wielding man referred to as ‘The Troll’, than slot-machine chips and complimentary towels. It is an interesting to see which vices the local authority chooses to focus on; the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department spend 30 million dollars a year, their biggest domestic expenditure, on fighting graffiti crime and were the first police department in the U.S. to employ graffiti detectives. So much seems to be in place for street crime prevention, yet there appears to be no crack down on illegal activities in the penthouses. Many have questioned what this Sin City is built on but the truth is what lies beneath. The city has long been famed for the extremes of wealth it encompasses yet perhaps the resulting art is only possible as a reaction to this juxtaposition and conflict of cultures. Only the light of a flashlight will ever see the graffiti that adorns the walls of the tunnels; it remains the hidden gem of Las Vegas and open only to those who aren’t afraid of the dark.