Interactive art is only as good as its activators. That is to say, people need to push, pull, climb, punch and explore with verve when they encounter a piece of art that asks them to take part in its success, or it is doomed to fail.
Two new works installed downtown this weekend make that inviting. Check that; both pieces actually make that irresistible. They are big, playful, credible and uncomplicated. Each is an oversized art-toy that sparks joy while asking people to experience their world from a new perspective.
The first, “Pipelines,” a sprawling outdoor piece by Canadian artists Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster, which debuted Tuesday as part of the international confab known as the Cities Summit of the Americas, though it will be up through Sept. 10. The piece, a 115-foot-long by 22-foot-wide weave of PVC pipes, brings life to the newly named Plaza of the Americas at 15th and Wewatta streets.
“Ikebana” is a giant, plastic, inflatable sculpture by Mexico City-based artist Angel Ricardo Ricardo Rios that is installed just four blocks away at K Contemporary at 14th and Wazee, through Saturday. The piece — at a considerable 114 feet long by 45 feet wide — was designed to be displayed outdoors but it has been brought indoors and crammed into the gallery’s first-floor space. There is barely room to walk around it.
That, of course, makes it an adventure. Visitors have to trek through it to get the real experience, crawling and snaking into its maze of bulbous orange, yellow and blue puffs and tentacles.
Like the Japanese art of flower arranging it is named after, “Ikebana” uses the juxtaposition of different shapes and shades to communicate emotions or moods. But this installation heightens that traditional idea by presenting an object to experience viscerally rather than simply to admire from afar like a vase of flora.
In this case, Ricardo Rios puts visitors through a variety of feelings and challenges. Some of those are physical: You have to get down on the ground and up on your toes to really get into it. Some are perceptual: The piece makes you contemplate your relationship to space, color, air, materials and the amount of control you have over your tactical environment. Some might find it slightly intimidating at first, and claustrophobic, though that easily transforms into more of a meditative experience over time
K Contemporary — which is pushing the limits of what a gallery show can be with this exhibition — leaves it up to visitors to have their own way with the piece. There is little navigational assistance on how to enter or exit, making it one of those rare offerings when curators are not trying to prescribe the experience. It is just there, with its fans humming, waiting to be investigated. Go with an open mind.
For “Pipelines,” you might actually want to go with kids. The work comes off as a sort of sophisticated piece of playground equipment that also tries to raise awareness of the environment.
Jamrozik and Kempster made the piece entirely of plastic pipes that are normally buried underground as part of the urban water infrastructure. The pipes were donated by JM Eagle, the world’s largest supplier of plastic piping, which has a facility in Pueblo.
The pipes are connected together in a three-level, lattice pattern set on the concrete plaza and come in three coded colors — blue pipes that are used to carry fresh water, green for sewage and purple for reclaimed water. The combo makes for a vibrant object while also covering the gamut of how water is transported beneath the city.
Visitors can use it however they want. They can look at it as a traditional sculpture to be admired from different angles, including from above if you happen to work in one of the office towers that look down on the plaza.
Or they can dive in, walking or jumping in-between, on top of, and through the structure itself. So far, I’ve seen scenes of 10-year-olds treating it like a jungle gym and maintenance workers borrowing it as a bench to eat lunch.
But there is also an opportunity to use the piece in a more serious way, to reflect on all of the junk we install under our feet, some for better and some for worse.
Water is a precious commodity in the West and these pipes, the same type used around the world, help us direct it in important ways that keep our cities sanitary and our drinking water safe.
Still, pipes need to be considered with care. That is especially poignant in Denver where a massive renewal project has our old lead pipes being replaced, neighborhood by neighborhood, with new ones made of materials on display here.
But is 21st-century plastic really better than the metal pipes that were a staple of the century before that? Were those better for the earth than the fragile clay pipes that were used for centuries before that? Only time will tell.
Economics, public safety, environmental security — these are all concerns that we are happy to bury out of sight, and maybe hope for the best about. This piece brings that discussion out into the open.
I think it is possible to use the piece — organized by Black Cube Nomadic Museum and supported by the Biennial of the Americas — in all three of those ways simultaneously, as a provocative piece of urban decoration; as a consciousness raiser; and as a public park suitable for all ages.
For a piece of temporary public art, achieving all three of those goals makes for a monumental achievement. That it is irresistible, and in the company of a giant inflatable down the street, doubles the fun.
IF YOU GO
Both installations are free. More info: blackcube.art or kcontemporaryart.com.
