Meow Wolf will bring elements of its immersive art environments to the Rose Parade on New Year's Day, with a float celebrating the collective's New Mexico origins and drawing on its locations elsewhere. The appearance comes ahead of a new Meow Wolf location opening in Los Angeles.
Sofie Cruse, the float's creative director, said the planned Los Angeles opening fits with the parade's theme, “Welcome.” Cruse has worked with Meow Wolf since its beginnings more than a decade ago and now serves as sustainment creative director for its Santa Fe and Denver locations.
The float is called “Meow Wolf Meow Wolf Meow Wolf: A Float by Meow Wolf.” Its design incorporates references to each location, along with hidden details for viewers to discover. At its center is a refrigerator linked to Santa Fe's “House of Eternal Return,” the exhibition where Meow Wolf originated. Characters, plants and animals appear to pour from the appliance into the surrounding scene.
Cruse described the refrigerator as a familiar entry point into Meow Wolf's portals and a way to explore the possibility of encountering the unknown in everyday life. The character Bearret leaps through it as other elements spill outward into a triple helix spiral. Aspen trees and references to the “Glowquarium” provide additional connections to “House of Eternal Return” and the collective's home state.
Flowers were a priority from the planning stage. The team chose to give Rose Beef, an “Omega Mart” character featuring an eye at the center of a flower, a prominent place in the design. Cruse, who has experience arranging flowers, said the project offered a chance to combine that interest with Meow Wolf's unusual visual world.
Nature has also guided her work on projects such as “Phenomenomaly,” large festivals and stage designs, Cruse said. Creatures and flowers regularly provide starting points for those creations. Developing the parade float allowed her to connect the collective's fantastical imagery with forms found in the natural world.
Cruse credited the artists involved in realizing the float, including art director Nathan Sparks, performance creative producer Cerene Onsite and creative director of performance Alexandra Renzo. Onsite and Renzo helped adapt Meow Wolf's characters and performances for the parade. Upward of 18 performers are expected to accompany the float along the route, wearing costumes made by people in Los Angeles.
The appearance will give Meow Wolf an opportunity to introduce Los Angeles audiences to its performance work alongside its elaborate builds, Cruse said. She described the float as an expression of the company's collaborative approach, creating an unfamiliar world within a limited physical space. As with its indoor exhibitions, the aim is to invite audiences into an experience that changes their sense of their surroundings.
