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2005-07-17 - 4:50 p.m.

I�ve been in Denver since Monday, visiting N. again. I originally planned to just stay until yesterday at her place, but I extended my trip to spend time with Jake as well. My lack of immediately pressing responsibilities in post-graduation limbo is a wonderful thing. Although she actually stayed over here with me last night and may hopefully do so again.

Our primary activity has been, uhm. Well. Use your imagination. But Wednesday afternoon we went out to the Denver Art Museum. Actually, first we got lunch at Tuk Tuk Thai. Cause how can you deny a place with a name like that? I had a cheap but mediocre pork wrap and N. got an avocado roll. As there�s no coast within a thousand miles of Denver, I�d be suspect of raw fish sushi too.

We took a bus to get there and it was the first time I�ve taken public transit with a wheelchair (I�m using a chair this trip and I�ll probably write more about how great it�s been later). It was very straightforward and much easier than I expected. I guess much of my knowledge of accessible transit is informed by childhood memories of pre-ADA buses where the driver had to let a person in the back door if there was even a lift. All Denver buses have nifty lifts right in the front. N. didn�t even have to pay fare as my �aid�.

The museum is moving across the street to a new Daniel Libeskind-designed building in fall 2006, where hopefully a lot of these issues will be resolved. But for now, the exhibits are presented shockingly badly. I mean, there must be tons of Museum School grads with degrees in curatorial arts who would kill for a job redesigning things better. There was little narrative flow or chronological order to the exhibits. Why were these items on display? What was their significance? It was almost like �Here�s a random bunch of stuff we have. Check it out!�

We first went to the displays of American Indian art (perhaps because Denver is still the Wild West in my mind). There was a weird mix of 20th-century pieces intentionally designed to be artwork and historical anthropological-type examples of �typical� ceremonial works. It was all a little vague. A display case would often have pieces from all different time periods or in different media from different tribes.

Again, this produced the effect of a random bunch of stuff on display. Often these had incredibly uninformative labels. There seemed to be some dim concern with attributing the sources of funding for acquisitions. But sometimes this was diluted down to the seemingly pointless �Acquired with donations from various sources.� My favorite unhelpful label was on a pot (or something): �Vessel. Unknown culture. AD 500-1000. Earthenware.� Thanks.

Not to say that there wasn�t beautiful stuff. There was a black shawl with colored borders whose design I want to figure out how to transfer to an article of clothing less dorky for a guy than a shawl or cape. There were amazing mid-century paintings that a cryptic label said were funded by the WPA and left me wondering who the sponsored artists were, why the WPA had picked them, and what more they had produced. So, if I become a zillionaire and the presentation problems haven�t been resolved, I�m going to donate to the Denver Art Museum with the stipulation that they not acquire new items, but better display the things they already have.

We progressed to the utterly ridiculous when we moved to the section on �Spanish Colonial Art�. The colonial Spanish were creepy, medieval folks who produced some very disturbing religious art. Fantastical painting of saints bleeding profusely and sculptures of skeletons with crowns of thorns. These latter were apparently used by a quasi-monastic order whose main activity was reenacting the Passion. According to a sign, these displays occasionally ended with a live crucifixion. Not live for long, I guess. Like I said, creepy.

Eventually, we moved through all this freakishness into a different room which didn�t have any sign indicating the subject matter had changed. But the first display case contained small jade figurines from the 16th-century Portuguese colony of Goa on the west coast of India. Hmm. The next case contained a large crystal and silver saltcellar shaped like a frigate. It was from 18th-century Austria. Indeed. Then we came on a section of gold and silver decorative art. It was quite pretty, but the centerpiece was a case with a crown that a label indicated had been designed by Bo Lopez in 2000.

We seemed to have lost track of the rationale behind the sequencing of displays. We figured maybe we were just tired and should head home for a nap. The next thing we saw confirmed our impression that we had passed into the absurd and should call it a day. There was a comment book with a pen attached for visitors to write in. The placard above it noted what you should record your thoughts about. Silver is special to many people, it said. What does silver mean to you?

We definitely needed to leave, but amid our giggling I was able to slowly write out in my barely-legible handwriting: �Silver. It�s fucking beautiful.�

� 2005 Geoff Gladstone

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