Sounds of the Caribbean filled Civic Center park in downtown Denver as 8-year-old Dash Elliott hammered keys on a modified piano. As park goers were serenaded Saturday afternoon they were also intrigued, prompted to take a closer look at the 20-foot interactive art installment.
The “Tree of Transformation,” was created by Denver residents Nick Geurts and Ryan Elmendorf. It’s a piano connected to big metal tubes that run up the back and “branch out,” with multi-colored lights attached to drums looming 20-feet overhead. Each key makes its own unique steel drum-type sound and the combination of the two instruments, piano and steel drum, intrigued nearly everyone who strolled by on the crisp, bright day.
“This thing is bomb,” said Utah resident Gilmarie Hernandez who stumbled upon it with her two friends, Mirna Alverez and Adriana Kuehn while they visit Denver for the long weekend.
“That thing is really cool, it’s really enjoyable,” Alverez said. “I have a daughter who would really enjoy it.”
Dash performed for several minutes with much enjoyment, which surprised his mother. “We have a piano at home,” said Dash’s mother Rachel Thomas. “And Dash won’t go near it.”
The wood-and-steel sculpture, installed Jan. 18 through April 15, is certainly a crowd-pleaser, as all walks of life, men, women, and children — some speaking foreign languages such as Russian — waited in line for their turn to be a percussionist for a moment.
Spencer and Marnie Siebach came from Broomfield to hang out in Denver for the day and were invited by the piano’s Trinidad and Tobago inspired sounds.
“We were like, ‘What’s making that sound?'” Marnie said as she gazed up at the drum “leaves” hovering overhead. The two said they often make it out to the Art District on Santa Fe’s “First Fridays,” and that they’d like to see more interactive public art installments around Denver.
Good news: An interactive public art event is happening right now until the end of September and there’s even a prize for the most creative. Denver Arts & Venues is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Denver Public Art and is doing so by recognizing selfies as fine art, but with a theme. Take a selfie, a groupie, or just a cute dog photo featuring one of Denver’s 400 pieces of public art as the background and submit it via social media with the hashtag “#DenverPublicArt30.”
At the end of the year, 30 of the photographs will be curated by Arts & Venues staff and Denver artists to be displayed at the Buell Theatre. But all submissions will be shown at PublicArtDenver.com.
Monthly themes:
February: Love, and African-American History and Heritage
March: Art in Cold Weather, and Women’s History and Heritage
April: Animal Art, and Public Art Selfies
May: Memorials and Statues, and Asian and Pacific American History and Heritage
June: Summer-Time Art (Picnics and Park Fun), and Find Art in Your Neighborhood
July: Denver International Airport Collection, and Light or Kinetic Art
August: Urban Arts Fund, and Indoor Art
September: Latino and Hispanic History and Heritage