What do you get when you give an agile artist 500 decks of playing cards, 1,800 poker chips, 800 dice, dozens of tubes of Super Glue and a request to create a glitzy Las Vegas sign? If the artist is Bryan Berg, you’ll get exactly that—a life size replica of the famous “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign constructed of cards, dice and poker chips.
Berg, who rose to stardom after he built a 25-foot castle out of playing cards, broke his no adhesive rule to build the sign for the World Series of Poker.
The sign is so gigantic it had to be attached to a scaffolding of wood. When it was complete the sign weighed in at 400 pounds. It took Berg 450 hours to complete the monstrosity he calls a “logistical nightmare.”
“It’s like brain surgery,” he said. “I didn’t even know if it was possible.”
The sign hangs proudly above the stage in the Rio Hotel’s convention center where more than 8,500 entrants are currently competing in the World Series of Poker tournament. The unusual sculpture is attracting thousands of visitors to the hotel, many who stand and marvel at the fact that the sign appears to shimmer in the desert heat. The artist reveals the reflection trick is the result of the sign’s honeycomb pattern and the cards laminated covering catching the light.
Over the years, Berg has learned a few tricks of the trade. A graduate of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Berg began stacking cards when he was 8. At 17, he won a Guinness World Record for the world’s tallest house of cards with a 14-foot-6-inch-tall tower. In 2004, he broke his own record with a 25-foot-tall recreation of Cinderella’s castle.
His latest project required him to use glue—a substance he says he tries to stay away from. When Loctite Super Glue commissioned him for the project, Berg said he would agree only if people could see glue was used.
“I don’t (usually) use tape, or glue anything together, and I’ve never even considered it. I’ve always been a purist,” Berg said. “I think it’s important that I’m up front about it.”