NESTLED IN MOUNTAINS, basking in sunlight, the city of Santa Fe has long enjoyed a vibrant art scene. Tourists can visit top-class museums and more than 100 private galleries. But the longest queue is not in the quaint town-centre, where building codes dictate architecture reminiscent of Native American adobe homes. It is on the south side, at the House of Eternal Return, for an “immersive art experience” constructed in a former bowling alley.
The House of Eternal Return is a neon assault on the senses—in some ways similar to Yayoi Kusama’s mirrored rooms of fantastic gourds—reminiscent of a ghost train at a local funfair, only on a larger scale. Meow Wolf, the collective behind the installation, built everything themselves. Most artworks are touchable, many are interactive and the scale of the installation is such that hours slip by before people emerge, blinking and overstimulated, into the outside world.
The wide appeal has meant success beyond the dreams of the creators, who started out as a group of punky artists who felt unwelcome in Santa Fe’s established art scene. They began to meet up in 2008 to glue stuff together, paint walls and dress up. “We all organically just grouped together, we had a place called the Quadruplex, that was four different houses all in one little lot,” said Chris Hilson in a documentary about the group released in 2018.
They had hoped for 125,000 visitors annually; last year around 500,000 bought tickets to the House. A funding drive raised $158m to build four other installations. The next to open will be this year in Las Vegas, the centrepiece of “an experiential retail, events and entertainment complex”; a site in Denver is planned for 2021. The group is restlessly ambitious; more than 250 artists are now employed full-time.
MeowWolf PUNKY!
MeowWolf Santa Fe Pop.: 76,000