Fastracks public art is just knit right for Union Station: Kenny Be's Yard Arteology

Full-sized photo below.

Now you don't have to drive all the way out to DIA to look at loopy public art. A quick trip to the Fastracks construction zone behind Union Station will have you slapping your head and screaming, "Knot again!" Behold the two-block long expanse of construction fence festooned with a crocheted-link afghan of billowy blooms that puts even the most prolific high-strung grandma to shame...

Photo by Kenny Be

Figure 72. Union Station: Train-yard flowers, yarning to be free.

The crocheted garden of large-scaled wildflowers buzzing with insects is a public art collaboration between the Ladies Fancywork Society and sound artist Jim Green, and was commissioned by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs and the Central Platte Valley Metropolitan District. And a better choice could not have been made.

The use of yarn in a construction fence is the perfect way to "spin" the construction story of a light rail project. With each skein, the City of Denver and RTD can "tie" the past romance of the rails to the future of commuter transit while "stringing" taxpayers along about the final costs and "hooking" them with the bill. Thus, it is only fitting that the knit-nuts of the Ladies Fancywork Society and noise-maker Jim Green help make us nostalgic for the sweaters that Nana never made, and the honey bees that we hardly ever see.