Happy Saturday Everyone! From looking at the picture with this post you have to be thinking that I have lost my mind. How in the world can a grate in the sidewalk be art? Well, from a visual point of view you are exactly correct, but this is not just any grate.
Along Curtis Street in Denver, between the Performing Arts Center and the 16th Street Mall is one of my all time favorite pieces of public art. As you walk along you will start to hear sounds coming from below the street. You might hear lions roaring or pigs grunting or trains or even tap-dancing. All of this is the work of artist Jim Green and it is called "Talking Sidewalk.
I love to take visitors to Denver down this street without telling them what is going on. Letting them discover that the sounds they are hearing are not coming form the streets but from below it is always a treat. First there is confusion, then disbelief, then a trying to understand and then an appreciation for the quirky piece of art.
I can not tell you the number of times I have witnessed conversations between complete strangers start up over what is going on under their feet. If the goal of public art is to make people stop and think, and even connect as they try to understand it, then Talking Sidewalk meets and exceeds these goals.
The best part for me is that it is not in any way a visual piece, but one that engages the sense of hearing. That it is unmarked and unaccredited, just something there to make your stroll down the streets of down town Denver a little more surreal is all to its credit. If you have not experienced it and you live in the Denver area, make time to pass by. You never know what you will hear!
The floor is yours.