Halloween and Valentine’s Day Collide at New Immersive Art Installation in Downtown Denver

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Halloween is usually about becoming somebody else donning a costume to disguise your true identity or to attract attention (we’re considering you, sexy-cat-costume-wearers). However one artist collective in Denver is turning into those normal motivations around this October with a residency at Understudy that urges people to fall in love with their internal “creatures. ”

The team, Secret Love Collective, only started last year but has been creating site-specific phenomena which are aimed at purposely changing the status quo about the rigidity of categorizing artwork. What they create isn’t mimicked, or visual, or sensory, or performative — it s all those and much more. Their latest installment, close to the Convention Center, is called Spooky Valentine also it combines the chance for somebody to embody a different identity from Halloween with the chance to distribute love from Valentine’s Day to create a totally new celebration. And costumes are a major portion of it.

“It’s an opportunity to consider beyond the aspects of each holiday,” one of those musicians from the collective, Frankie Toan, explained.  “What parts of yourself do you love or talk with the world? How do you highlight that or send a Valentine to that? It moves with [Secret Love Collective’s] ethos of always attempting to celebrate and explore all parts of ourselves and others. Spooky Valentine is a campy play on the creatures within us and that.

Through the entire month, Secret Love Collective’s installation invites visitors to join the area and be imaginative. That could mean taking a slew of selfies, crafting a Valentine, engaging in an “Ego Slayer” yoga course, using the nicely-lit area to work to a Halloween costume or engaging in dialogue with strangers. The purpose would be to tune into these pieces of yourself and others that are usually considered “scary” — flaws, errors, insecurities, judgments, vulnerability — and offer them a hot embrace (or a handmade Valentine). The collective is made up of eight performers — Frankie Toan, Piper Rose, Katy Batsel, Lares Feliciano, Colby Phillip Graham, Genevieve Waller, Katy Zimmerman and Lauren Zwicky —  some of whom you may encounter in the event that you quit from the distance.

“We overlook ’t just attempt to create artwork but also make arty spaces that harbor community. We’re all of artists and there’s a lack of queer art organizing in town so that we developed [as an artist collective] to have fun and to fill that,” Toan commented.

For the remaining part of the month, Spooky Valentine will host several scheduled events, on top of their regular hours (Monday, Wednesday and Saturday by 11 a.m. to 6 pm ). Beginning on Monday, October 15 in p.m., together with all the “Mystery Date” night, Spooky Valentine will become a live relationship game, where all contestants have to dress in a costume that portrays their internal “monster. ” Contestants can be anybody, as long as they dress up, and the team will be broken with half to a curtain answering questions in two. Could you fall in love” with somebody s internal “monster? ” Of course, an actual date won’t be required following engaging, but it will be indicated.

A selection of pieces that are costume that are Further

The next Monday, October 22, from 6 to 8 pm that the region will be converted into a dance party like no other. Coined “In Bed By 10,” this dance party is catered to people who wish a cathartic experience on the dance floor and wake up for work on Tuesday morning. As Piper Rose, another artist in the collective, place it “I love Monday since what’s in a state of complete potential [to the remainder of the week]. In addition, I like to dance. Clubs that open at 10 p.m. boggle me, all I want to do is eliminate work, push the dance floor and be in bed by 10 p.m.. This is about your own personal dance period. ”

The climax to the October residency for Secret Love Collective will be a Halloween Parade — and everyone is invited. Also occurring on a Monday (October 29), the parade will begin and finish at Understudy but may take to the streets in between. People are encouraged to come before 6 to work on their costume — with some assistance from the artists in the collective and a restricted supply of further costume items —  before stepping outside the safe enclave and into the public world. “When you put on a costume, then you have to decide that you simply ’re stepping out to be perceived because [costume], rather than not having a costume and with others think you’re wearing one. This is kind of a way ” stated Toan. Besides the apparent significance of a costume parade and Halloween, this occasion reinforces the underlying thesis of Spooky Valentine — that the custom of self indulgent and the approval of other people.

“A significant portion of [the parade] is utilizing the public space. [Secret Love Collective is] a collective that does not have any permanent space to work in. We have cars and We’ve got carpets, and studios,” additional Toan. “But to me personally, the parade is vital since we’re using that people space. It s a reclamation of distance, but in addition uncontrolled like this. Our artwork isn’t just restricted to a pub or a workspace or a studio, so it s on the planet with us. ”

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Spooky Valentine is open Monday, Wednesday and Saturday by 11 a.m. to 6 rebounds at Understudy, 890 C 14th Street before October 29, 2018.

All photography from Cori Anderson

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