(For the love of God, thank you – promoted by Colorado Pols)
Fuck the financial crisis and stimulus debate for a second – we here in Denver have a real local problem. Somehow, somebody thought it was a good idea to put up a giant 32-foot tall satan horse right outside a building that already creates super stressful situations for people. Not only does this red-eyed behemoth welcome Denver visitors with what is a menacing horse version of Zoul, not only is it crafted with strangely elaborate detail around its genitals and corn hole, it also has a blood on it chest – literally. Yes, as the Denver Post reports, “the statue has a reputation, in part because the creator, Luis Jimenez, was killed in 2006 when the torso piece swung out of control and fell on him in his studio.”
As Westword reported last year, Denver International Airport already has some pretty weird occult-ish shit all over its terminals – it’s kind of like an airport designed by Ivo Shandor (who, as Ray Stantz famously said, was “either a certified genius or an authentic whacko”). Now it’s time to take action. Join the Facebook group and help us stop telling visitors that by driving down Pena Blvd., they are headed towards Gozer the Gozarian’s Lair. As the government and banks collude to rob the nation blind, at least we can reassure ourselves we may still be able to remove the devil horse from the welcome gates to the Mile High City.
That’s something, isn’t it?
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http://blogs.westword.com/late…
I mean, “el caballo del diablo”
Have mercy. That’s what I get for following your link.
Ewwwww. What did we do wrong to deserve this thing?
If you can’t convince anyone to follow you on the big issues, go nit picky wacko.
More than anything, that’s what makes you the least interesting person on this site.
And it would have been just as accurate.
What’s that about first impressions?
But you make an excellent point:
Me am Sirota. Me write column. Me appear on talk show.
ME AM HATE BENNET! SIROTA SMASH!!!
I like the damn thing. I say keep it.
I mean come on, wtf, we had/have a great example over at MileHigh/Invesco.
They could have spent way less, made it nice and white with nighttime light ups and gave it normal eyes.
What did this POS cost anyway and who paid for it?
When I first saw it, I thought it was some kind of homage to the Denver Broncos. After that, it just seemed strange. Why not sell it? DIA could use the money in some other way…
A long time ago, some of the movers and shakers were trying to move a small herd of bison at the airport. I wonder whatever happened to that?
A blue horse with crazed red eyes and strange anus is not the way to say “Howdy Folks” or “Y’all come back!” It’s not a good way to embrace the horse world either.
Finally, something I can agree with David Sirota on.
I love the art work, but do argue with the placement of it….I’d put it along Pena Blvd.
a post that starts out “Fuck the financial crisis,” even if the rest of it is a bit daft. Extra points for using “corn hole” in a family setting.
But where I’m from politics is never a “family setting”!
Hey, just lets the flatlanders know they’re not in Kansas anymore.
What do you think they eat on the long, cold winters?
I like it. It is fun.
par the course in Denver.
Maybe it can join the blue bear at the Convention Center.
I think the artist claimed it didn’t have anything to do with the Denver Broncos. Maybe that’s the case, but it’s still one ugly nightmarish specter.
Hey, davidsirota, that’s some change in tone and voice: I thought someone had hijacked your ColoradoPols account the first time I scanned this one.
But the giant red chair with a horse on it, now that I could live without.
Sirota – I laughed out loud. Great post.
It’s one of the things I show off to visitors, and everyone who comes into town seems to get a kick out of it.
I mean, c’mon, IT’S SO CURIOUS! HOW IS THAT NOT ADORABLE?
Sure, he may look cute and fuzzy, but I bet he’s just waiting for some unsuspecting tech conference attendee to walk by and then – BANG! – he’ll reach through the glass and chomp down on that tender man-morsel. It’s why I call him “Boxed Lunch.”
Still love the big blue guy, though. He’s adorable. Even if he is a soulless, godless, rampaging killing machine.
It’s whimsical. It’s outside the library; it says something to me about imagination.
But, heck, plenty of people like the blue bear. I hear it being said that it looks “curious” and “adorable.” I think you hit on why I don’t like it, though: to me it looks “hungry” — hungry for attention and tourists’ money, rather than honey.
I’ve always befriended slow people for that very reason.
If the horse were sitting down at least it would be funny. As it is – giant chair, normal size horse.
And why a horse? Why not a pig or a cow or maybe a giant little boy sitting in the chair reading a normal size book? Now THAT would be funny!
I didn’t say it was “funny.” There’s a difference.
Why not a duck? I’m not so sure what would make a pig or a cow funny, instead. It would probably still be whimsical, though, with those animals.
However, your criticism is noted. Thanks for noting mine.
Takes me back to my childhood. No horsey, but we had a chair like that.
Not often I can say that but sign me up David, that thing is an abomination. If they relocated it elsewhere in the city I could deal with it but visitors to our state shouldn’t be subjected to this blight within minutes of arriving.
I rather suspect that more people would rather look at an ugly blue Bronco statue than read David Sirota.
That’s not to say that Sirota isn’t worth reading, just that there are more Bronco fans in Denver than David Sirota fans.
I’ve seen the statue. It’s ugly. But it’s Denver’s own.
And what is a “corn hole” anyway? Is that jargon?
Someone please correct me if this is not true. I’m not that familiar with equestrian lingo.
I believe it’s Beavis and Butthead lingo, though not exclusively.
Might as well keep it, let’s do a big cow for $4 million…who cares?
We have ugly artwork all over the place, what’s one more.
Here’s a side of Sirota that’ll get you banned from Colorado Inside Out! But I say more of the same, please.
Can we work on getting rid of the hideousness that passes for public art by the arts center next, please. I’m not sure what was worse – the non-functioning bubbling cauldron of a public art boondogle or the Macbethian dancing stick figure witches that replaced it. Public art by appointed commission rarely works.
It would fit right in beside those gigantic dancing white stick figures on Speer.
Seriously…what an eyesore against the great mountains in the background that greet visitors as they leave the airport.
is nearly as big of a waste of time as putting it up was a waste of money.
Keep it now as a monument to why government should stay out of certain parts of our lives.
Plus, now that everyone hates it so much, I kind of like it.
I think a name change is in order. That won’t cost anything.
Instead of “Blue Mustang”, let’s call it:
“STIMULUS”.
that thing is truly horrifying.
Luis Jimenez was a major American artist, and this beautiful work is arguably his masterpiece. Sirota is just as angrily know-nothing as an art critic as he is as a lefty pundit-and many of y’all seem to be firmly in the philistine camp.
So if you don’t like it, give it to us in Colorado Springs. We’ll find an appropriate site downtown, or in one of our magnificent parks, or maybe even at our comfortable, stress-free airport-and, cheap-ass repubs that we are, we’ll be pleased to snag a major work of art for free-especially from you snooty Denver lib’ruls!
And BTW, there’s a wonderful, much-loved Jimenez sculpture of Mexican dancers on the the grounds of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.
P.S. Can we have Lawrence Argent’s blue bear too?
Luis Jiminez was a major American sculptor, a prominent Hispanic artist. And I don’t like his DIA piece.
Lawrence Argent is a renowned sculptor. I don’t like his blue bear at the Convention Center, although plenty of people do.
Michael Graves is an internationally renowned architect. I find his Denver Public Library design unbalanced.
Daniel Libeskind is an internationally renowned architect. I don’t like the new wing of the Denver Art Museum, although it has been trumpeted far and wide. When you’re up close to it, it’s not inviting; it’s imposing, it’s a show-off. Give me Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain instead, which seems to have been developed with some thought at least for the physical setting of the town (and I’ll take the Jeff Koons’ sculpture in the link below over Argent’s blue bear, too):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G…
Plenty of people are looking forward to the new Clyfford Still museum opening, since he was a major founder of abstract expressionism. Most of his work leaves me cold.
It’s not a question of being a philistine necessarily; it’s a matter of different tastes and senses of aesthetics.
“I respect the right of detractors and champions alike as we live in a democracy.” — Billy Childish, the British musician, poet, and painter.
.
but it seems to me that the repudiation of the work of Starr Kempf indicates that this town don’t want no fancy schmancy artwork.
Give us the bland and blase, thank you very much. Nothing too unsettling or thought-provoking.
.
If I ever see Rick Moranis running around in a strange trance in front of this horse asking if its the gatekeeper I know we will have reached the end times…
I recently visited Denver for the first time in a rather long time. Imagine my surprise when I was greeted by ::evil voice:: the Demon Horse of the Apocalypse? ::/evil voice:: I couldn’t decide if DIA had a hell of a sense of humor or.. well, I don’t know what other options there really are.
I will say that it adds character, if you’re into that whole “the end of the world begins here in Denver” sort of thing. Hailing from RI, I can honestly say that it could be worse. At least it isn’t a couple of dozens of 6-foot tall Mr. Potato Heads scattered throughout the state. I’ll take a demon horse over those monstrosities any day.
There are no good reasons given here for getting rid of our fabulous horse statue.
All of the reasoning amounts to:
I don’t like it
Its at the gates of the city
so, get rid of it.
So far as I can tell, the conclusion of this line of reasoning is not supported even a tiny little bit by the reasons given.
This “movement” to get rid of our fabulous horse sculpture seems to be coming from John Caldera and his “institute”. Mike Rosen is on board, along with ALL of the resentment merchants on right wing radio.
Divid Sirota too?
Come on David.
There is nothing wrong with it. Its not broken, its not doing any harm, and its FABULOUS!!
The blue mustang, by the way, is an archaic theme in Southwestern oral history.
Study it! Don’t condemn it!
Find something else to condemn, you bunch of small minded, knee-jerk philistines!