Denver International Airport is known for a lot of things, from conspiracy theories to a seemingly remote location, but it鈥檚 also home to local artwork.
The airport鈥檚 latest installation uses a common item at any travel destination: luggage.
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The art installation is called It鈥檚 Not What You Take, It鈥檚 What You Bring Back. The colorful sculpture consists of 183 pieces of upcycled luggage donated by Colorado residents. It is currently on display in Concourse B.
鈥淎irports are never closed. There's always a plane in the sky. There's always someone moving,鈥� said Thomas Evans, the artist behind the piece, who鈥檚 better known as Detour. 鈥淪o that's really what I wanted to hone in on. And for me, like I said, going back to my childhood, that is something that I would want to see at an airport.鈥�
Detour is well known around Denver for his colorful murals of local heroes, such as Denver Nuggets Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic. He specializes in large-scale public art and making it immersive for an audience.
With the DIA piece, people can experience the display differently depending on where they stand. From the escalator, the art appears as an infinity symbol, but as people get closer it appears to be more of a loop that resembles planes taking off and landing. The colors recreate the experience of the sunrise and sunset.
While It鈥檚 Not What You Take, It鈥檚 What You Bring Back is a good fit for an airport, part of the exhibit is personal for Detour.
鈥淢y dad's military, went to West Point, so he traveled my whole life, moving every three to five years. So I've always been in airports, always been traveling around,鈥� said Detour. 鈥淎nd luggage has been something that's been a part of me.鈥�
The Denver airport has showcased art for years and is an ongoing project and part of their initiative 鈥渢o connect a local and global audience to the environment and culture of the vibrant City of Denver and the unique State of Colorado.鈥�
Past exhibits include other art pieces like abstract artwork meant to represent conversations while traveling to photos of Colorado through the seasons.
The airport first approved Detour鈥檚 piece two years ago and he got to work on collecting the nearly 200 pieces of luggage needed to complete the project. He says some of the luggage came from friends, while other suitcases are connected to unique stories.
鈥淚 guess one of the stories was Henry, who had a brewery next to where my studio is. When he was 10, his father passed away, and his mom took him out of school, and they traveled the world for a year, and then that bag that he donated to me was that bag that he used to travel the world with,鈥� said Detour. 鈥淵ou don't want those stories to go by the wayside or to be missed, especially when you have an opportunity to almost honor that bag in a way, because it tells a story of who his father was.鈥�
Detour says the next piece of the project was delivering the luggage to a fabricator to attach all the pieces to an armature. That鈥檚 the metal frame that holds the sculpture together. Next, each bag was painted before the finishing touches. Finally, it was delivered to the airport.
鈥淲e had an unveiling, and a lot of people were really excited just to see what I did with their piece (of luggage) that they donated,鈥� said Detour. 鈥淎nd a lot of them really love the idea just seeing it a part of the public art space, being immortalized in sort of this piece that will be permanent.鈥�
Hear from Detour by listening to his interview on the In the NoCo podcast.
