Eternal Returns...

Magic Bus -- Santa Fe skies reflection
There are some very fancy 'rigs' at our RV park.

Santa Fe is one of those special cities that defies definitions -- amazing scenery with some of the most spectacular skies you will ever see, funky neighborhoods, old and new architecture, history, indigenous cultures, art, opera, rich, poor, straight, gay and everything in between.  I don’t know how many times I have visited or how many more times I will return but it is for sure that Santa Fe will always have new experiences and new surprises to be discovered.

A new surprise for us on this trip to Santa Fe was our visit to Meow Wolf.  We had heard of this art collective of about 135 artists who combine several art disciplines including painting and sculpture, video production, audio engineering, architecture and writing to create fully interactive art experiences.  And yes, this group of artists call themselves, Meow Wolf. When we were here last year a couple we met in our RV park told us we just had to go to Meow Wolf’s new exhibit space in a recently purchased bowling alley but we didn’t make the time.  I was determined we would go this year and so we did.

David sits in the parking lot at Meow Wolf

What a fun, fun thing to experience!  The bowling alley is painted white and the old neon bowling pin sign is still out front.  Except for the giant statues of a red robot, a wolf and a scary black spider plus a few food trucks, you would think you were going bowling.  But once you purchase your tickets and enter the double doors into the bowling alley, all semblance of reality shifts.  An old Victorian house looms ahead of you in the dark and beckons you to walk onto the porch and enter the front door.  There, an interdimensional mystery begins to unfold that will engage all your senses and suck you in for hours.

A very young explorer of the exhibit

It is difficult to describe the experience of this exhibit, you really must just go.  The exhibit is entitled, “The House of Eternal Returns” and the main mystery revolves around the Selig family that has curiously disappeared after a break in the space-time continuum.  Clues are all over the house, notes from the children, books, old photographs and grandfather’s journal of his ‘experiments’ in interdimensional travel.  Strange people in white coats are roaming the house.  But where did the family go?

Navigating the Aquarium

 A weird glow in the fireplace, a cracked door under the staircase, the closet in grandfather’s room and other passageways in the house invite entrance and then lead to a magical cave system, a haunted forest and portals to other worlds.  Sort of a combination of Disneyland (only you can really get off the boat in the Pirates of the Caribbean Exhibit and go through the ship on your own and there is no map to the gold) and the Harry Potter novels (only the chapters are in no particular order and anything can happen at any time), The House of Eternal Returns goes on and on, as long as you do…    

Coffee?

Or a little TV?

An interesting note about Meow Wolf is that George R.R. Martin, author of “The Game of Thrones” series, was involved in the acquisition of the bowling alley enabling Meow Wolf’s first permanent exhibit.  Martin said the concept for the exhibit “pushed all his buttons.”  He had to help.  Although permanent, The House of Eternal Returns will continually be added to and reworked.  All I can say is no matter your age, if you like art, fantasy and/or the surreal you really should experience this! 

Will we ever find the way out or are we doomed to eternal return?