Art Tripping

Denver’s Meow Wolf Transports Visitors To The Fantasmic Beyond

Story and photos by Reid Neureiter

For the GPHN

In 2008, a collective of artists gathered in Santa Fe, N.M., intent on creating a new kind of art experience. Each artist placed one word on a piece of paper to be chosen from a hat. The first two words selected, “Meow” and “Wolf,” named the collective.

Today, Meow Wolf has become a multi-city arts and entertainment company in Santa Fe, Las Vegas, and now, downtown Denver, where its four-story, 90,000 square-foot Convergence Station opened not far from Mile High Stadium last September.

Through immersive, multimedia experiences, Meow Wolf describes itself as transporting audiences of all ages into fantastic realms of storytelling. Its Denver installation is part jungle gym, part haunted house, and part a hands-on children’s museum for all ages.

A visit is a disorienting but enthralling adventure, with secret doors opening to reveal new chambers, hidden stairways, and psychedelic passages. Each feature different kinds of art, some of it small, some massive enough to fill entire rooms — all somehow tied together by the installation’s unusual origin story.

To the uninitiated, Convergence Station presents as a freaky combination of the science-fiction land of Avatar’s Pandora, the dazzling structures and sculptures of Burning Man, the flashing colors of Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district, with a dash of SpongeBob SquarePants thrown in for good measure.

The tale is that four alien worlds have been joined together via a “rare cosmic event” to create a place where “memories are currency.” These disparate environments include the unnerving labyrinthine subterranean world of Ossuary; the Ice Cities of Eemia which feature a two-story tall Kaleidogothic Cathedral; the 6th dimensional rain-forest landscape of Numia; and the neon metropolis of C Street, which brings to mind an extraterrestrial Times Square. Each “world” is bathed in different colored lights. Each has a different soundtrack, with unusual music creating a unique sound experience to complement the visual feast presented by the multitude of rooms and corridors.

The experience is interactive, including numerous computer screens responding to touch and sound, dazzlingly push-button activated spinning washing-machine-like sculptures, with certain exhibits that can be seen only by bending to navigate spiral halls or crawling under low-hanging platforms to pop one’s head up out of a hole like a groundhog.

The entire experience is made all the more unusual because the facility’s docents, or guides, are dressed as if they were residents of this alien world—a strange mix of goths and fairies, all ready to direct you to the nearest (very oddly decorated) restroom if you have the need.

Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station is a worthwhile excursion for modern art and fantasy aficionados of all ages, although children younger than seven might be frightened by some of the darker rooms and otherworldly images. General admission tickets are $45 ($40 for children) with a $10 dollar discount for Colorado residents. Check out the Meow Wolf website for reservations and other info at tickets.meowwolf.com/