Tag Archives: Furthur bus

Feb24

Art at Meow Wolf

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This is what the outside of Meow Wolf looks like. Even the exterior of the building is art.

I’ve already written two posts about my recent visit to Meow Wolf, one a general review and one about buying a piece of art from the Art-o-mat® in the lobby. Yet, I still have a lot of photos I haven’t shared.

  • Giant robot smells the flower.
  • The building that houses Meow Wolf was a bowling alley back in the day.
  • Is that a meow wolf under the New Mexico sky?
  • The Man took this photo of the giant spider.
The art pieces in the photos above are in the Meow Wolf parking lot.

What’s weird is that while I felt as if I took a lot of photos while in the House of Eternal Return exhibit, when I look through my photos, I realize there were so many photo opportunities that I missed. I was trying to experience the experience and not live behind my camera, but it seems like I left out so much.

  • We found ourselves in a desert scene and sat down to take a break.
  • Wait, there was an entire canned ham travel trailer in front of us. It was a passageway to a whole new scene.
  • Oh, this stove! It was in the travel trailer. I love the color!
I think we were in Arizona for a minute. There were cacti and yes, an entire travel trailer in the place.

Of course, it would be difficult to adequately explain Meow Wolf to you even if I had carefully photographed every single different thing I saw. (Such a task would take a very long time.) There’s so much going on in the place. There are not only objects and paintings to look at, but there’s music happening and ever-changing lights. Some of the lights and music change because of something someone touches. In some places one can play music by touching lights. Almost every aspect of the House of Eternal Return is a multisensory extravaganza.

  • Giant “fossil.” People could walk into the rib cage and use the “bones” as a percussion instrument.
  • I thought this information was true at first.
In this experience, people could walk inside a giant “fossil” and use the “bones” as a musical instrument. The entire “fossil” changed color over time. I saw it change from pink to green.

The only way to even begin to understand Meow Wolf is to make your own visit. Actually, there may be no way to understand Meow Wolf completely. But I certainly can’t explain it to you.

  • This creature appears to be about to eat a corn dog.
  • This guy is really cool.
  • Are these delicate, delicious treats?
  • Are these soft-sculpture internal organs?
  • This entire room was painted to make visitors feel as if they were in a black and white comic strip.
These are all random pieces of art I liked from throughout the multiverse.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Meow Wolf for me is that those people have an entire bus in there! Is it a reference to Ken Kesey’s bus Furthur? Are the Meow Wolf artists on the bus or off the bus? Did I mention the bus is vertical, with its engine and front wheels in the air? We first encountered the bus on the ground floor. I was beyond pleased when we went upstairs and found the front half of it sticking up through the floor.

  • I first experienced the bus while sitting behind this steering wheel.
  • When I looked up toward the ceiling, this is what I saw.
  • The bus is vertical.
  • Those are the entrance doors. Are you on the bus or off the bus? Be careful, the first step is doozy.
There’s a bus in Meow Wolf and it’s pointed towards the sky.

But is it art? Who cares? It’s an entire bus (or most of an entire bus…I couldn’t tell if it was all there) inside a building sticking up through the floor. What is there not to love?

Here area few more random things I saw during my visit to Meow Wolf.

  • Soft lights…what’s on the other side of the window?
  • This piece kind of creeped me out. The face and hand were 3D. Who is this creature? What does it want?
  • This creature was in the room with the warning about flashing lights. What is it?
  • This was one of my favorite pieces. I called it the trash carriage. If I were magical, this is how I would travel.

Even the long hallway between the ticket counter and the restrooms was full of art. The whole place was about art and life and thought and coolness.

This art was between the ticket counter and the restrooms, just your average hallway.

When I go back to Meow Wolf, and I do plan to go back, I will take more photos.

  • Diner is served…but something is not quite right with this food.
  • Postcard decor.
  • Another postcard.

I’m doing something a little different today. Maybe you noticed. I’m using galleries for the first time so I can share many photos at once with you. If you click on the smaller photos, they’ll enlarge so you can see the better. I’d love to know what you think about this format. Tell me what you think in the comments.

I took the photos in this post unless otherwise noted. The low light in the exhibit made for substandard image quality. My apologies.