The new Roni Horn retrospective plays out like a poem at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. The objects on display tread lightly, rhythmically, metaphorically, across the two main floors of the downtown building.

The photos, prints, sculptures and video — that are all related, in some way, to water — do not say directly what they want viewers to hear or understand. Instead, they offer hints and clues, bits of text, slices of dialogue, murky imagery, that all mirror the sparse verse of poetry, and bring together Horn’s larger suggestion that water — sometimes cool and refreshing, other times cold and icy — reflects the complexities of human identity.

It’s deep, to borrow another water metaphor, but it feels less like a plunge in the ocean and more like a warm bath on a chilly night. S

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