12 OCTOBER 9-15, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | says. “You’re trying to take a picture from the window, but you can never get it quite right. That bubble of frustration of not being able to take in the totality of the landscape is intentional.” As visitors move through the gallery, they’ll get hints of the artwork behind it, but never the full picture. “Every time you move, they’re obscuring something else in the gallery,” Lukavic says. “You can imagine yourself in the space, but you can’t get there from here,” Carlson adds. “You can hallucinate it on the work, but there is denial to emerging into that 2D space.” Dakota Hoska, former associate curator of Native Arts at the DAM and now the curator of Native Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., had been working on the show before leaving the DAM. “Don’t try to decode it,” she recommends. “Enjoy the confusion.” Carlson wants people to leave A Constant Sky feeling inspired and a little bit chal- lenged. “I hope it makes them want to read the labels or puts a question in the back of their head that sparks a curiosity,” she says. It may take several visits for the work to even begin to sink in. If you get motion-sick, remember to keep your eyes on the horizon. “Through metaphor, she’s getting at the core of important ways of seeing the world around us, that if more people were cogni- zant of, we may have a more respectful way of interacting with each other,” Lukavic says. “...I hope people take the time to explore the work, look for these metaphorical references and read the interpretive text. We don’t tell people what things mean. We try to guide them into seeing landscapes in a differ- ent way, about connecting with the world around us, because we are of one world, of one constant sky.” Andrea Carlson: A Constant Sky is on view at the Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, through February 16. It is included in general admission. Email the author at kristen.fi [email protected]. Culture continued from page 10 “The Constant Sky” explores museums’ collecting practices and narratives of possession and ownership. “Ancestor and Descendant” by Andrea Carlson. KRISTEN FIORE KRISTEN FIORE
