Artist Mithu Sen with Border Unseen, on display at Broad Art Museum.

I’m a firm believer that works of art must be experienced in person to best be appreciated. Mithu Sen’s Border Unseen, currently installed at the Broad Art Museum, exemplifies the reason an in-person visit is necessary. Photos can’t do justice to this lovely and deeply icky piece. You have to see it to appreciate its grand scale and the tiny details.

When you enter the exhibit, you are confronted with an 80-foot-long organic beam made of sculpted dental polymer, studded with denture teeth. It rests on the floor at one end; the other end is suspended from the ceiling, giving visitors the chance to walk through the negative space to see the structure from below. Upon closer inspection, you’ll begin to notice little characters mixed in among the teeth (curator Karin Zitzewitz shared that they are model railroad figures from a hobby shop in nearby Frandor Shopping Center), and an occasional skull. These bits of whimsy elicited smiles and giggles from many of our fellow visitors. The miniature people look like they are scaling a pink mountain amidst delicate swirls of clear polymer drool. It sounds grotesque, and it is, but it is also exquisitely beautiful.

Pick up a copy of the exhibit brochure to learn about the meaning of the work and its relationship to Zaha Hadid’s geometric architectural design, but first take some time to experience it and draw your own conclusions.

Sen is an internationally renowned artist with a body of challenging, provocative projects. Having the opportunity to see her work here in our own community, without the expense and time involved in traveling to London, New York, Mumbai, or another big city, is an amazing thing. Her installation is a great example of the high caliber of work being commissioned by the Broad.

Border Unseen is on display through August 31, 2014, at Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum in East Lansing.