The Conference Coach™

The Front Range surrounding Denver, Colorado is a magnificent place. The mountains are truly majestic and on a clear day, one can look north to see Wyoming and south to see New Mexico.  The mountains give way to the most western edge of the Great Plains and Kansas is easily spotted when the clear blue sky is devoid of clouds, rain storms or dust particulates from wind.  If you’ve ever flown into Denver, you’ve probably seen this for yourself from a bird’s eye view.

Over the past two or three decades, Denver has reinvented itself from an industrial town to a bustling metropolitan area.  Long gone are most of the warehouses that filled downtown and the options for recreation have increased in range and numbers.  Many of the warehouses have been converted into spectacular living spaces with shops below giving Denver a very viable community within the downtown district.  And so as not to forget the cultural changes, Denver has invested millions in the convention center, theaters, museums, zoo, parks and shopping areas to ensure that not only residents feel compelled to stay but tourists and locals desire to dine, play and stay in the city.  They’ve also invested in a first-class airport to ensure that passengers are easily able to get to Denver and that airlines want to fly through Denver International Airport (DIA).

With all this, one has to wonder why, why those in decision making positions chose to put two of the most unusual, and quite possibly, most inappropriate pieces of art in prominent locations at DIA. Anyone who has flown into DIA and driven away from the airport knows the spectacle of the giant blue rearing horse with demonic red eyes.  For those of you not familiar with this obnoxious and somewhat disturbing art-rocity, the blue horse is 30-feet tall and is located on a hill to greet people as they arrive at the terminal building. An interesting and somewhat creepy fact is that during the creation of the statue, the head of the horse fell on the sculpture and killed him.

Okay, so I’ve never actually seen it disintegrate a car, but from the conversations I’ve had with many, many people, it would not come as a surprise if the eyes of the status suddenly came to life and did emit beams of light that destroyed with amazing precision.  You think I’m kidding but I’ve met several people who upon seeing the carefully placed status ask why someone (anyone) would pay for such a disturbing public work of art.

So this begs the question as to why someone (or a city such as Denver) would then commission and pay for a status of Anubis, god of the dead, to be placed in a similarly prominent position at a public airport?  What are these people thinking?

Oh yes, I know that Anubis is one of the Egyptian gods of the dead and that his primary duties included helping in cemeteries and mummification, ushering people into the underworld and monitoring the Scales of Truth to protect the dead from deception and eternal death.  I also recognize that still today parts of Egyptian culture Anubis is very important.

But really, what were these people thinking? Did they stop to think about the affect on travelers that a 26-foot statue of Anubis, god of the dead, would have on travelers or the unsettling message that it sends?  Even local media outlet Fox 31 weighed in on the installment.

Kim Posey interviewed travelers at DIA who weren’t thrilled.  Read her entire article entitled “Blucifer’s New Buddy:  God of the dead arrives at DIA.”

Why do I care? Well, I arrived yesterday at DIA and had some time to kill before being picked up.  Grabbed my bag from baggage claim and decided to make my way out to the south end of the terminal where there is some outdoor seating.  The 7-ton Anubis with its jackal head and golden cuffed biceps and ankles gazes in at the passengers as if waiting to usher their poor departed souls to the nether regions.  I had wondered where the statue of Anubis was located.  I wonder no more.

Alycia Maier-Turner is the Director of Marketing for Copper Conferencing a provider of Earth-friendly communication tools – audio and web conferencing. Copper also provides wrap-around services including online account, invoice and recording management. You can try Copper’s great web and audio conferencing services — FREE. Just sign up now.