There may be shortages in some sectors of retail, but the shelves are as full at Omega Mart today as they were when the experiential art destination opened at Area15 a year ago. Dented cans of Camel’s Dream of Mushroom and Barely Barley meal substitute “sops” are abundant, as are jars of P-2000 Cracker Spackle and bottles of home freshener spray Who Told You This Was Butter?
There is no shortage of visitors from around the world either, with reactions to Meow Wolf’s off-Strip maximalist satire of consumerism expressed in a variety of languages by “shoppers” perusing the aisles. Verbal expressions give way to speechless amazement when exploration uncovers entries to an alternate universe. Like a wardrobe enabling children to enter Narnia, Omega Mart has several passageways hidden in plain sight that allow explorers into a world of pure imagination—some 60 environments created by a collective of artists with insatiable appetites for surmounting art-world conventions including The Infinitizer (pictured).
Feb. 18 marked the anniversary of Omega Mart as a Meow Wolf milestone, reinforcing the artists’ shared belief that whatever ultimately lies behind their collective vision, they are doing it right. Still, creative director Spencer Olsen felt a little too close to the project to objectively conclude how successful things turned out when the doors first opened.
“I had no idea if this was good, if people were going to like it,” he says. “There is a part of the audience that doesn’t get it, but I’ve been remarkably pleased by the reactions. I’ve seen these in-depth analysis videos on YouTube … some of these people found connections and story threads that we couldn’t have even planned.” Manifesting permanent immersive art experiences that people would pay to visit has been a goal that had firmed up for the group of Santa Fe visionaries by 2011 when they created The Due Return, a full-sized explorable ship inside a Santa Fe gallery. The next year, they made a prototype Omega Mart, with 1,000 schoolchildren helping to create its sardonic consumer goods.
Meow Wolf, under the patronage of Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, then transformed an abandoned Santa Fe bowling alley. The House of Eternal Return was an immediate hit when it opened in 2018 and paved the way for successors in Denver and Las Vegas, where knowledge and wisdom culled from previous projects were fully exploited.
At Omega Mart, that resulted in a destination with four sprawling thematic “anchor spaces.” Taking in the sights and sounds while randomly exploring every twist and turn of Omega Mart’s four giant themed areas is sensually satisfying on its own, but there’s a storyline involving Omega Mart’s fictional parent company Dramcorp, its missing founder Walter Dram and his daughter Cecelia. Unraveling the enigma behind Dramcorp is a deep dive that conspiracy buffs may find worth the time commitment.
“We didn’t want it to feel like an evil corporation,” says Olsen of Dramcorp. “It should either be good or ambiguous, or at least well-intentioned. … Ultimately it’s about a family.”
Area15, meow.wf/lvm
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