To say that Meow Wolf is an odd bunch is a bit of an understatement.
Based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the art collective is most known for their "House of Eternal Return," a 20,000 square foot interactive art exhibit that appears to bend reality itself.
Meow Wolf is bringing their psychedelic weirdness to the Life is Beautiful festival in Downtown Las Vegas this year, which will take place on Sept. 22-24. There, the group plans on turning an abandoned motel into a giant work of art.
"We just want people to feel like they're stepping into a different universe or a different dimension," said Sandra Wang. She's one of 100 different artists that worked on the project, and one of the 40 that traveled from Santa Fe to Las Vegas to see it through to completion.
According to Project Manager Jessica Vredenburg, the Art Motel at Life is Beautiful will have a decked out courtyard, as well as individual rooms for artists to go wild. The motel will also feature a few Las Vegas-based artists, including Joel Spencer, Nova May, Spencer Olsen, Brett Bolton, Eric Vozzola, Miguel Rodriguez, and Miguel Hernandez.
The approach of mashing together dozens of individual art projects into one building produces eclectic results. And the Meow Wolf team likes it that way.
"If anybody who came here could actually tell me a theme of what we're doing, I would be really surprised," said artist Benji Geary to a small group of his chuckling peers. He also said that interactivity is the main focus of the exhibit and that he wants visitors to be surrounded by a strange world created by the artists.
"I think just seeing the diversity of art and the different ways that people approached the space that they had to work with is really awesome," Jessica added. "There's something for everybody."
