Most Popular
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Shakeup in Denver Radio
Denver radio's getting a shakeup, with more alterations on the horizon. But do any of the switches qualify as improvements?
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CU Hires Three Pulitzer Winners
Some of newspapering's best and brightest are trading journalism for academia — including three Pulitzer winners hired at CU.
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The Good Soldier
When the Army tried to take down Andrew Pogany, it messed with the wrong coward.
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Crepes ’n Crepes
French food is no flash in the pan.
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Arapahoe County DA Charges Death-Penalty Fees to the State
How does DA Carol Chambers beat the high cost of a death-penalty prosecution? By billing the prison system.
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Con Artist Gives Funny Cause for Pregnant Pause (8)
Would you pay $20 to get a scam artist off your front porch?
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Hope for the Colorado Rockies Springs Eternal (6)
A What's So Funny special report from spring training in Tucson.
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Big Trouble (8)
Gary Haney was living the high life until meth took him down.
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To the Max (5)
A publicity-hungry student shows how easy it is to become a media darling -- with a little help from CU.
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Sunshine Megatron to Move From T-Shirt Hell (3)
Should millionaire T-shirt mogul Sunshine Megatron make Denver his new neighborhood? You be the judge.
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Still Moving
Brad Cloepfil surprises the city with a thoughtful design for its newest museum.
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The F-Stop’s Here
International photographers focus on Denver all month.
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Far and Wide
MCA Denver takes on Chinese Art, while the Lab looks at rural America.
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The Lieutenant of Inishmore
Spurts of laughter, spurts of blood.
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The Gin Game
A battle against the coming darkness.
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More Naughty Stories About Nottingham
01:15PM 03/24/08 -
Jonathan and Patrick Roy: Like Father, Like Son
11:47AM 03/24/08 -
Hair Metal Flashback and Other Assorted Goodies
01:39PM 03/24/08 -
Over the Weekend...Justice, Diplo @ Ogden Theater
08:35AM 03/24/08 -
Look of the Day - Elgin Kelley
12:09PM 03/21/08 -
Look of the Day - Erin
12:05PM 03/20/08 -
Delegating Denver #36 of 56: New York
08:56AM 03/24/08 -
Looking for Larry, #2
07:04AM 03/24/08
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Recent Articles By Michael Paglia
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Still Moving
Brad Cloepfil surprises the city with a thoughtful design for its newest museum.
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The Photography of Huang Yan|Body Art: New Photography From China
In China, the government still calls the shots.
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Now Showing
Capsule reviews of current exhibits.
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The F-Stop’s Here
International photographers focus on Denver all month.
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RedLine
Laura Merage makes progress at her future art space.
National Features
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Village Voice
A Long Way Wrong?
Another celebrated memoir threatens to blow into a million little pieces.
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LA Weekly
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The Pitch
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Far and Wide
Continued from page 1
Published: March 6, 2008Bender is Colorado's chief proponent of the almost-century-old idea of Marcel Duchamp that if an artist says something is art, it is. For decades, Bender has picked up discarded objects and assembled them in their original states to create installations or sculptural cycles. The initial Benders, which have no titles but can be described by what they're made of, have a vaguely rural feeling to them, thematically linking his work to Lucier's. The first things visitors see are grids of circular crocheted doilies mounted on black boards. At first glance, they look like quilts. Over a long period of time, Bender has found them in thrift shops and has brought together the ones that are roughly the same shape and size but have different details in terms of both the stitching and colors to pull off this monumental piece.
Adjacent to the doily panels is a row of old wooden ladders, each different from the other. Other works are made of kitchen utensils, or Chinese checkerboards — even reproductions of the same cheesy painting — and all of them are similar with differing details.
It's amazing how much visual mileage Bender has been able to get out of his single revelation that art is about perception. And as thoroughly different as his method and means are from Lucier's, the two shows somehow work well together.
When the Lab opened in 2006 at precisely the same moment as the Hamilton Building of the Denver Art Museum, Lerner led me to believe that he had little interest in showcasing regional art, and instead wanted an international cast at the Lab. Apparently it didn't matter where an artist came from, as long as it wasn't from here. With the inclusion of Bender in the current exhibit, it looks like Lerner has happily reconsidered.
