Meow Wolf Denver

It's surreal

When my sister, Linda Rowe, visited this summer, she, Caty and I went to the Meow Wolf installation in Denver.

I had heard from some people that the Santa Fe and/or Las Vegas installations were great (or, at minimum, interesting). So, I was curious.

Linda at Meow Wolf in Santa Fe; Photo: Robert Rowe

Meow Wolf is an American arts and entertainment company/artist collective that creates large-scale interactive and immersive art installations. 

Santa Fe; Photo: Linda Rowe

Founded in 2008, Meow Wolf created multiple temporary installations before opening its flagship permanent attraction, House of Eternal Return, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2016. 

Meow Wolf’s second installation, Omega Mart, opened in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2021.

The Denver installation, Convergence Station, which is the one we visited, opened last September.

Started as a non-establishment artist collective, Meow Wolf has 200 different artists and employs more than 150 people. 

The story is that at the first meeting of the collective, everyone present put two scraps of paper with a word on each one in a hat, and the first two scraps drawn -- Meow and Wolf -- became the organization's name. 

Each of the three permanent installations has a storyline: 

House of Eternal Return is based on the fictional Selig family, who disappeared after experimenting with interdimensional travel. They tapped into a mysterious force known as "The Anomaly" in an effort to bring back deceased family members. This caused their house to fracture open with paths to alternate dimensions (apparently, visitors can take the paths through washing machines and fireplaces and so forth). 

House of Eternal Return, Santa Fe; Photos: Linda and Robert Rowe

A secret government organization called the Charter was able to contain the Anomaly's effects and now passes off the containment warehouse as an art installation.

The Denver installation has a couple of pathways (one through a bus) that may be a take-away from Santa Fe.

There is Omega Mart crossover in Denver

Las Vegas' Omega Mart follows Dramcorp, the hypothetical corporation that owns Omega Mart stores in an alternate dimension where they use a power called "The Source" to sell their products. 

Some of the Omega Mart products show up in the Denver installation.

I particularly like the gallon of "Plausible Deniability" and the boxes of "Done."

Convergence Station (the one we visited) is Meow Wolf's largest installation, employing more than 100 local artists (including indigenous artists) specializing in a wide range of media, including architecture, sculpture, painting, photography, video production, cross-reality, music, audio engineering, narrative writing, costuming and performance.

Convergence Station is described as an interdimensional transport hub of the Quantum Department of Transportation (QDOT) linking Earth to the Convergence of Worlds, named for a cosmic Convergence event that resulted in fragments of four planets fusing together. 

It goes on:

Nearly three decades ago, a freak cosmic event known as the Convergence tore away pieces of four different worlds in the blink of an eye.

Cosmic escape

Ripped from their loved ones and native planets, scores of displaced citizens were thrust into this new Convergence of Worlds, with only memories of the lives they had before. 

Memory itself became so vital that an entire memory-sharing economy developed and soon flourished. This new memory economy was all the more important because, in the wake of being smashed together, these worlds were wracked by relentless "Memory Storms:" psychic aftershocks of the Convergence that would scatter citizens' memories whenever they struck.

Today, Convergence is buzzing with activity: QDOT has opened its latest station as an endpoint in Denver. So, this is the first time Convergence residents are able to visit Earth. And citizens have suddenly started remembering glimpses of four forgotten women -- who were each somehow tied to the moment of Convergence on their homeworlds.

 

Visitors are supposed to figure out what happened to the women  ("the Forgotten Four") who disappeared on Convergence day. When you arrive, you can buy an interactive "QPass" card to help figure this out. At about $60 per person to get in (plus $15 to park), I thought asking for an additional $3.00 for the card was ridiculous. So, we didn't play (it was probably tedious to find the terminals to do it, anyway).

Consequently, I have no idea what happened to the Forgotten Four: Pam, Panoa, Rune and Darya. And, I don't think I care.

How I feel about it

Four Worlds

The station includes four areas: 

C Street, a "busy, colorful but grimy area that was once the scorned sanitation district of a planet-wide metropolis” and is now “a melting pot for beings from across the universe after the Convergence, happy to be torn away from the landlord-bureaucracy of their homeworld and ready for change."

Its like all those dystopian worlds you see in futuristic movies (but full of puns)

The Ossuary, a library that holds the Oss crystals that stored memories of the Y'ruk people after a cataclysmic volcanic eruption. 

Linda, me and Caty in the "library"

Eemia, where a high priestess is trying to find a way back home by "opening the sky" to try to save her civilization from the thousand-year ice age it has been facing. 

The sky is open above the castle

Numina, which is both a "character and a universe” that comprises cells that each have their own timeline and universe. Numina has "portals to other worlds through doorways and dioramas that serve as connection points from one parallel universe to another."  

A giant flowing plant world

If none of that makes sense, don’t worry. Meow Wolf’s website describes Convergence Station as "immersive psychedelic, mind-bending art and an underlying rich narrative” that takes you on a “journey of discovery into a surreal, science-fictional epic.” 

My Thoughts

I can’t say it was my cup of tea. It’s giant without a set path to follow, so you just wander about (with lots and lots and lots of other wandering people). We may or may not have seen everything.

I expected a wide variety of art styles, but found much to be quite similar: lots of re-purposed junk, bright colors, weird amalgams and too-loud music.

What? Photo: Linda Rowe

It sort of looked like Sid from Toy Story had gotten a grant to make real art.

Sid's creations, Toy Story

A friend told me that it might have been simpler if they had just handed out some drugs.

Or, perhaps, it is just your worst nightmare. 

I didn’t hate it, but I found it jarring. When we left, all I wanted was some quiet, calm and order.

My favorite part was tiny dioramas in these radios

And, oddly, I don’t think I gained any insights. I guess I just lack an artist’s soul.

I asked Caty and Linda for their thoughts, as well. 

Caty's Thoughts

I enjoyed many aspects of the Meow Wolf experience, which reminded of several science fiction shows and movies. 

It was fun to look closely and see all the little jokes and find secrets hidden in the displays. 

Caty said some parts reminded her of Dr. Who; Photo: the Tardis, Dr. Who

I like that you can wander and see everything in whatever order you want, but there were areas that I felt rushed or squished because the passages were narrow and there were either too many people or people wanting to move in different directions. 

I also felt that there was a little too much music. I would have liked to have more quiet spaces or at least different types of music. 

Photo: Meow Wolf

I also think that I would have enjoyed the experience a bit more if we had played the additional mystery game (QPass) they had available, although I do think it was ridiculous that it wasn’t included in the admission price. 

I don’t think that I will go again, but I might be interested in going to some of the other locations. 

Linda's Thoughts

Robert in Santa Fe; Photo: Linda Rowe

My first visit to Meow Wolf was on a rainy day in Santa Fe. "Rainy" is an understatement. Storm drains backed up and small hailstones accumulated along the curbs.  

My husband Robert and I congratulated ourselves on our luck in choosing the day for an indoor activity to punctuate a southwest trip otherwise devoted to outdoor pursuits and natural scenery.

The contrast between the hostile weather and the off-beat coziness of the Meow Wolf experience no doubt enhanced my appreciation of the installation's vibe. 

Linda in Santa Fe; Photo: Robert Rowe

The original Meow Wolf is sited in an old bowling alley and comprises numerous small(ish) interconnected rooms, hallways and constructions designed by individual artists in response to a vague and mysterious narrative: a family has suddenly disappeared and may or may not have transferred to an alternate dimension. 

Did they go willingly? Are aliens involved? What about the mysterious government organization? The whole business resonates well in New Mexico: Land of Enchantment, of Roswell, Los Alamos and White Sands.  

The contributing artists' interactive installations are sufficiently varied to offer surprises both ridiculous and sublime at each twist and turn. And twist and turn one does! Meow Wolf is deliberately non-linear; getting 'lost' is part of the fun.  

Psychedelic sensory overload via color, sound and texture is a stated objective. It's a 1960's Bob Dylan song: full of intriguing popular-culture imagery that seems to carry deep and political meaning, which, when considered closely, perhaps doesn't make any sense at all. Overall, I appreciated the contrasts between the different spaces, some of which are realistic, some surreal, some lovely, some loud, some quiet and some just bonkers.  

Photo: Linda Rowe

I expected much the same from Meow Wolf's Denver installation and for the most part my expectations were met. There were plenty of ingenious and occasionally witty installations constructed from found objects. There was color and light (the 'cathedral' structure is exemplary). There was a quasi-political, sci-fi-like narrative theme that provided an aura of mystery and meaning regardless of whether one tried to follow it.  

As with Meow Wolf Santa Fe, spaces can be experienced in any sequence and "going with the flow" is the only map needed. 

Photo: Linda Rowe

Denver stuck me as just a bit slicker and more coherent -- not to mention louder overall -- than Santa Fe. 

The larger Denver space with its lofty ceilings, multiple levels and cranked-up sound improves physical access for visitors at the cost of some of the intimate, ad hoc "guerilla art" funkiness of Santa Fe. 

Overall, though, the Denver site is quirky and fun, providing a great venue for 3-D multi-media artists to showcase their talents.

So, there you have it!

Trip date: August 6, 2022