Meow Wolf’s first permanent installation – The House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe – was a 20,000 square foot immersive multiversal experience built by 200 artists in an abandoned bowling alley. But in 2018, the organization announced their plans for a second build-out… this one nearly three times as large at 52,000 square feet, 60 environments, and 325 artists involved.
Rather than being an off-the-beaten-path attraction as in Santa Fe, Meow Wolf Las Vegas would take up residence in a new, immersive, indoor entertainment complex for “Sin City” called Area 15. Residing among indoor zip lines, virtual reality simulators, psychedelic walkthroughs, the fabled Lost Spirits Distillery art show, and more, Meow Wolf’s second installation would take the shape of something entirely inoccuous: a grocery store.
In 2012 – long before House of Eternal Return gave Meow Wolf a permanent art installation, the collective developed OmegaMart – filling the shelves of a small, rented storefront in Santa Fe with outlandish, odd, and otherworldly products designed by local students through the organization’s Chimera outreach program. Nearly a decade later in 2021, the concept came full circle in the form of a second permanent installation.
OmegaMart (Las Vegas, Nevada)
“You Have No Idea What’s In Store For You” at OmegaMart – the so-called flagship store of the nationally-expanding grocery chain founded by entrepreneur Walter Dram. Proud of its “benevolent and irrepressible growth,” Walter’s daughter Cecilia now oversees the OmegaMart chain and the larger workings of its parent company Dramcorp.
Sure, Dramcorp’s dabbling in “Additive S” to its store brand products has a sort of nefarious, dystopian corporate air, but hey, it’s late stage capitalism! Why shouldn’t we try to “ascend” to the next plane of existence with a little help from our grocery chain of choice?
The most remarkable thing about OmegaMart might just be how unremarkable it is. Somewhere between a chain grocery store and a Midwest gas station, entering the experience really is like… well… going shopping.
The shelves of OmegaMart really are stocked with items that – for the most part – you really can purchase. (Hey, if you’re going to skewer consumerism, you may as well benefit from it, too!) But if you come to OmegaMart for your real grocery supply run, a closer look at the shelves may leave you feeling a little queasy.
Nearly every item on the shelves at OmegaMart is a blink-and-you’ll miss it parody ranging from otherworldly nonsense to hits-close-to-home meta-commentary.
From bottled “Vegan Goat Pus” to “Simply Spiders” cereal; lunchmeats that volleys somewhere between rancid and intergalactic; “Who Told You This Was Butter” room refreshening spray, “Nut-Free Salted Nuts”… Even the giant tub of cheese balls (marked “Fun Size” on a scale of “Fun,” “Compound,” “Party,” and “Armageddon” size) are Prepper’s Choice brand, with a gas mask logo, and a starburst icon signaling they’re “An Excellent Source of Orange” and double as “Official Currency of the Postwar Economy.”
The store’s most legendary sight must be its Dairy section where, mid-milk-carton, a seeming glitch in reality has stretched and elongated an entire section of wall and product into an abstract art piece.
Occasionally, the pleasant-if-bland elevator music begins to crackle as the stores overhead flourescent lights stream in shades of red, green, yellow, purple… Perhaps the only obvious signal that there’s more than just odd groceries to this exhibition. In fact, there are several ways to access the “behind-the-scenes” of OmegaMart, including a second floor “Employee Micro-Break Room.”
But most visitors’ first indication that there’s a whole lot more to OmegaMart than meets the eye is via the soda cooler. Frosty bottles clink as you swing open the door, but beyond an a narrow hallway that meanders through the icy refrigerator. The further you go, the more the glass bottles seem to warp.
It lets out in Seven Monolith Village – a desert town set in the grooves of a Technicolor slot canyon. Diving deep into the mythology of OmegaMart reveals the importance of this desert oasis, whose wellspring of water serves an important purpose in the overall story. But the projection-mapped canyon walls all around create an impossible atmosphere that’s a stark departure from the rigid, artificial store you begin in.
Likewise, further connections lead to the OmegaMart Factory – a multi-level space filled with catwalks, slides, conveyer belts, and watchtowers. This incredible, kinetic place clearly serves as the super-sized analog to the House of Eternal Return‘s central Forest – a literal, glowing, interactive playground right in the middle of the experience.
Finally – accessed via a secret locker entrance from the employee Breakroom on the second story of the store – is the headquarters of Dramcorp. This dystopian corporate office park is a dark, Black Mirror-esque environment of research labs, prototype testing, and even white collar offices where you can dig down into the “Transcendant Operations” and training regimine for Dramcorp “Factory Actualizers.”
It’s clear that OmegaMart supersizes the experience of the House of Enternal Return while maintaining its artistic integrity. Yes, OmegaMart is an experiential art installation, and a family-friendly attraction for Las Vegas. But it’s also smart. Wickedly smart. It’s funny and dark and clever.
And just as Walt Disney World built on the foundation of Disneyland, it’s more refined. There’s a greater level of certainty here than in the House of Eternal Return; a little more intentionality to the narrative connections between OmegaMart, the Village, the Factory, and Dramcorp Headquarters. You’re just as likely to get lost, of course, but the visuals and interactives and experiences here feel less like a fever dream and more like cohesive, complementary environments well-contained by a frame story.
OmegaMart really is an exploration. Just like the House of Eternal Return, it uses a grounding in our world to explore another. But it’s an entirely fresh world and story and a brand new corner of the multiverse to explore. Somewhat like an anthology series, the first two Meow Wolf sites are sort of “spiritual sisters,” drawn from the same realm of sci-fi, fantasy, and adventure even if they don’t narratively connect at all.
…Which might leave you wondering what awaits in Meow Wolf’s third (and to date, most recent) permanent installation…