Hundreds of thousands of Denverites have heard Jim Green's work -- but they may not have realized it was art.
“Train Call” is the official name for the jingles — musical riffs, clanks and chimes — that accompany announcements on the trains at Denver International Airport. The recordings are so popular the airport made them available as ringtones a few years back.
It’s one of numerous installations of Green’s work around the city. If you’ve ever been surprised by strange sounds drifting up from grates along Curtis Street, had an escalator laugh at you at the Convention Center or found yourself serenaded by a sink at the Denver Art Museum, you’ve encountered Green’s art.
Green, who had relocated from Colorado to Florida, died earlier this week at the age of 75, as Westword and The Denver Post reported.
“I like the idea of kind of nudging people out of their routine a bit, creating a surprise. I think that people need surprises,” he told CPR News for a profile in 2010.
Green started out studying sculpture and painting at CU Boulder, but lost patience with the visual arts halfway through and began recording the people around him. He described his work as audio folk art; for gallery shows, he'd rig a bunch of headphones to the walls and invite people in to listen.
And he was playful with his art: For one piece, he created walls of self-squeezing whoopee cushions at the Children’s Museum of Denver and at the Museum of Contemporary Art, startling and delighting visitors with their rude exhalations.
“I think that in some ways Jim's art does shock,” said Gwen Chanzit, who was a Denver Art Museum curator at the time, in 2010. “Provocation can be a good thing. It doesn't have to be something that is unpleasant. In fact, I think that to provoke in a good way is a wonderful thing.”
Green also made a specialty of public art. He pointed out that a lot of the sounds that fill our public spaces — from elevator buzzes to car horns — are designed to alarm, and believed an artist's touch could help soothe that audio landscape.
“I think public art functions best when it humanizes public space,” said Green. “A lot of times I really feel like I'm trying to remove some of the separation people feel in public spaces.”
Denver Arts and Venues, a city agency, marked Green’s passing Friday. “Jim’s ability to infuse joy into public spaces, combined with his uplifting spirit, will be missed by all," read a remembrance on Facebook.