I think it’s entirely possible that there are only two reasonable reactions to Meow Wolf’s latest collaborative installation piece “Biome Neuro Norb.” And that is that you’ll either love it or hate it. Either way, the show is bound to provoke a strong reaction – and that’s precisely what the show’s sixteen talented artists had in mind when they built it.
“As we were building it, we fantasized about people walking through the door and having uncontrollable fits of prolonged vomiting,” said organizer Vince Kadlubek.
My personal reaction? Spontaneous bursts of laughter at everything I saw.
These staggeringly creative kids have built an environment that feels a lot like the set of a ‘70s sci-fi movie, complete with caves you can crawl around in, miles and miles of mylar tubes, alien heads hanging from the ceiling, and a master control panel in the center of the room that lets you the viewer interact with spinning tops, a wild soundtrack, lights and various things that go bing. The walls of this little space have been obliterated by foam insulation-forms that wind around and cover the ceiling completely.
In all, the space presents a total piece, but there are sections you can pull out for further examination. “The Clean Room” is just that – the most uncluttered section of the space with white walls and mylar tubes and strange contraptions. There are the aforementioned caves where you can go inside and relax on mylar couches and stare at cool stop animation movies. There’s a day-glo orange accented forest, as well as a little office area with ancient family photographs of a family that belongs to no one in particular.
To find materials for this endevour, our intrepid artists journeyed into the depths of the local Salvation Army dumpster and made a visit or two to the venerable Black Hole of Los Alamos. Whatever they found, they used, or so it seems – you can make out all kinds of debris and detritus in the many installations that fill this space to bursting.
Above all, this show reminds me of one of those wacky roadside attractions where some kook labors for decades to build some outrageous shrine to some totally made up deity. An art opening where they served absinthe rather than white wine and no one talked about their stocks. This is one of those shows that you Absolutely Cannot Miss. Who knows? You might HATE it. But I didn’t. I loved it so much that laughter still haunts my mind whenever I think about.
