A Gallery of Narrative Immersion: A review of Meow Wolf

From the outside, Meow Wolf may be perceived as nothing more than a gray, rectangular building, painted in an array of neon colored stripes. But the second you walk inside, you are transported into an immersive reality that will warp your perception of the world, taking you back to your wildest childhood dreams.

Once a cavernous, abandoned bowling alley, Meow Wolf is now an immersive art exhibit on Rufina Circle in Santa Fe. This exhibit, which opened in March 2016, was created by 135 artists and funded by the “Game of Thrones” author, George R. R. Martin.

After entering the black entrance hallway, you are immediately overwhelmed with fascination and curiosity as you enter the yard of a life-sized, two-story Cape Cod house.

Inside, the antique furniture, portraits, children’s drawings and bookcases filled with real books and journals might actually deceive you into thinking you’re in a real middle-class American home. But who are the people in these portraits? Where are the children who drew these images of monsters? Who wrote in these journals? Who is the man in the video on that desktop computer?

By walking into this exhibit, you enter someone else’s life — their home, and, inadvertently, their mystery. You see, this is no normal house.

Dig into their closets, walk into the fridge, and crawl through the fireplace. This house is extraordinary, as every place you turn, every detail you investigate, will lead to a place more peculiar and mind-boggling than you could have ever expected.

It’s a different type of wonderland, a place where reality is mistaken for hallucinations and madness. When you leave the kitchen, you find yourself in a spacecraft. Stepping through a kid’s secret hideout in a broom closet will bring you to an RV in the middle of a blistering hot desert. Walk out of a teen girl’s hot pink room and find yourself in a distorted jungle, with twisting trees and paper towns hanging in the air, blanketed by neon lights.

“It is a really fun place to go. I love going there because it sparks my creative imagination and, as an artist, that is an amazing experience,” said Santa Fe High junior Madeline Polhamus.

One of the main goals in creating Meow Wolf was to provide an opportunity for artists to be paid for doing what they love and to inspire young up-and-coming artists.

“Meow Wolf was created because none of us wanted to leave Santa Fe to pursue the arts,” Betsy Leonard, one of the artists involved in the project, said. “So we were able to create a space that enabled us to stay and make work here. … There weren’t a lot of places for kids and teens either before this project. That was also one of the goals — to create a space that everyone can enjoy.”

Meow Wolf has definitely succeeded in creating a space that people of all ages enjoy.

“In my experience, Meow Wolf is great place to spend time with friends and escape into this new, obscure reality,” Jackson Cary, a Santa Fe High sophomore, exclaimed. “You’re able to go into a whole new world when you’re there. It’s as if you are dreaming. … Everything is just so odd. You could just spend days exploring every inch of the premises.”

Another sophomore at SFHS, Josh Topp, said, “My friends and I were sitting in a room that had flashy strobe lights and cool music playing. Everywhere you turn there is something peculiar and odd that intrigues your curiosity.”

And this year, new additions have been made to the exhibit, including a room full of mirrors, a slide, and many new portals.

“Honestly the new additions were meant to have happened before we opened the first time. We just ran out of time and money,” Leonard explained. “So I think it’s been really great to have a chance to improve and enhance the experience for our patrons. We added more interactive installations, which I am happy about because it encourages people to keep touching and illuminates that taboo space between the viewers and the work.”

Meow Wolf, at 1352 Rufina Circle off of Calle del Cielo, is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Learn more at www.meowwolf.com.