About the box: DCM curator's garden

Curator's note: This is part of extending the Looking for Loci exhibit. Looking for Loci co-curator Jaime shares:


Genius Loci: My Garden, Denver
By: Jaime Kopke

I live in a tiny white house that used to be home to the carousel horses over 100 years ago. Set back from the street, hidden by a row of unkempt hedges, sits my magic garden. An enormous century-old rose bush guards the decrepit gate. The vines and the weeds are constantly creeping in, though I battle them only half-heartedly because I love the wildness of this place. Rose bushes of every color and scent fill one side, while the other hosts my overgrown plot of vegetables and flowers. It’s a place where potted plants rest next to wooden saints and candles hang from the trees. This old house is filled with history and secrets and the garden is where they are hidden.

About the box: Predominanty about birds

Genius Loci: The Bird Room, Loveland, CO
By: Marielle Butters

In my youth my father bred birds – watching these magnificent creatures from my height of two feet I began to obtain the uncanny notion that they were not only imprisoned physically by a metal cage but they were, like people, mentally caged by schemas and perceptions strong as steel that may never be forsaken.

As a child I pitied the birds for living in such a small space, but in truth, that space is no smaller than that set aside for each person who can see only so far in a society plagued by hegemony.

Curator's note: Marielle is the niece of Looking for Loci contributor Alan Disparte.

About the box: Performance art as tribute to the WPA

Curator's note: again, this is part of extending the Looking for Loci exhibit post-run. The story of this box is complex, but it's sweet history once you get into it.

Genius Loci: The Magafan Walkathon Performance
By: Anne Thulson, Denver

Posing as two WPA artists, Jenne and Ethel Magafan, we placed ourselves at two public buildings that house their murals. Anne started at Jenne Magafan’s mural “Women Settlers” at West High School, 951 Elati Street. Alli started at Ethel Magafan’s mural “The Horse Coral” at the post office at 225 South Broadway.


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We walked towards each other until we met. This happened to be at the 7 Eleven at Broadway and Third Avenue. Here we made a shrine to the Magafan sisters.

This walk mirrors the way in which the Magafan twins pieced together a living from one WPA mural commission to the next, all the way through the Great Depression with uncanny synchronicity and symmetry. It also acknowledges local work by local artists, especially the artwork done in Denver under the Treasury Department during the New Deal.

Note: From the NYT obit on Ethel:

"Ms. Magafan was born in Chicago and grew up in Colorado Springs, Colo. She and her twin sister, Jenne, an artist who died in 1952, studied with Boardman Robinson and the muralist Frank Mechau at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. In the late 1930's and the 40's, she painted Government-sponsored murals in post offices in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado and Arkansas, as well as in two Federal office buildings in Washington and the chamber of the United States Senate."

About the box: Confluence

Genius Loci: Denver
By: Charles (39), Annnika (10),Elise(8), and Mia (6)

Our Loci is the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River. This meeting of waters is the birthplace of our city, Denver, the place we call home.

Children's laughter can be heard, dogs park, and couples walk as the city erupts around the force of nature carving its way through the urban landscape as it has done for thousands of years. Humanity and nature form their own confluence in this Loci of Denver.

Curator's note: While the exhibit has stopped running, the pieces exist online. What I love about this family project is the detail, craft and coordination. Notice the materials and implicit thought in the image above.

About the box: let's get this party started

Curator's note: thought that it would be fun to start the new year with what I think of as the party box. Short on text, long on fun. What I love is that the execution of the box is detailed and lavish.


Genius Loci: Denver By: Leigh Bush

Denver - outside she’s one thing, but inside she’s a whole different beast.