SHIFT your gears
Factory Obscura is launching SHIFT, an immersive art installation that asks visitors to physically explore the fullsensory environment.
Meow Wolf.
If those sounds weren’t coming out of a cute, domesticated animal, then I wouldn’t be interested. That changed this summer when I was invited to hear the cofounder of Meow Wolf speak in an Oklahoma City coffee shop. So what is Meow Wolf? It’s a20,000-square-footinteractive art extravaganza that’s tough enough to be jumped on by kids and creative enough to feature more than 100 artists’ multimedia contributions. I wouldn’t call it a museum. It’s too alive.
There aren’t any rules at Meow Wolf, and you can touch whatever you want as you explore the art complex’s loose narrative tying all the creativity together. I’ve yet to visit, but it sounds like the playground for my inner child.
You can find Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and plenty of people already have since it opened in 2016. During his visit to OKC, Meow Wolf’s CEO Vince Kadlubek shared that attendance had surpassed half a million visitors.
What’s all this have to do with Oklahoma? Well, a batch of Okie artists have been inspired by what’s happening and are taking a crack at making their own immersive installation. The group’s called Factory Obscura, and the artist collective was founded by Laura Massenat, Laurent Massenat, Tammy Greenman, Hugh Meade and Thomas Thompson.
They invited more than a dozen artists and volunteers to create SHIFT. Consider it an inaugural test run for another interpretation of Meow Wolf’s interactivity. SHIFT opens to the public Friday and features a theme exploring consciousness. I toured the bare-bones version a couple of weeks ago at Current Studio and already could see the potential through all the dust and buzz saws. Here’s a few things I learned from my visit.
1. There’s a skull busting through a ceiling
SHIFT’s entrance was designed to make visitors choose their own adventure. I suggest going to the right and taking a peek inside the giant “skullpture” that looked like it was built from the remains of a haunted jungle gym. I mean that in the best possible way. Artist Nick Lillard built the backbone of the structure in two pieces that didn’t quite fit in Current Studio without having to literally raise the roof. There’s multiple exits from the skull and each one leads to somethingnew.
2. The details are amazing
Everything’s something inside SHIFT. Take a closer look and keep an eye out for the small things. At the top of one of the exhibit’s man-made towers is a shadowbox village by Nicole Emmons-Willis. She specializes in stop motion animation, so she has a knack for making imaginative set pieces. I loved her windmill scene that you might miss if you’re moving too quickly.
3. They recycle
Around another corner, a small crew of artists were
working on an illuminated, touch-activated staircase that winds past a wall of quilted milk jugs. The plastic jugs had been needled with a tiny hole just big enough for a zip tie to slip through and tied together into a wall-sized blanket. Paired with the lighting behind the jugs, the installation looks like a psychedelic sunset.
4. It’s a team effort
Kelsey Karper runs the show at Current Studio alongside Romy Owens. The duo normally invites artists in residence to create and show fresh artwork every month. The SHIFT exhibit is so massive that it’s filling the Fall residence. It’s been in the works since May.
“This project has really been a learning experience for us,” Karper told The Oklahoman.
“How do we collaborate on this scale with so many people involved? It’s been a really conscious effort throughout the whole process because we want to involve as many people on the team as possible with every decision we make so that everyone has an equal ownership.
“Everybody’s working on everything together. It has been a process of figuring out what is the most efficient way to do that.”
Karper and Owens selected an eclectic mix of artists to build the SHIFT installation. The roster includes Tiffany McKnight, Mandy Messina, Amber Rae Black, Brandon Seekins and many more.
5. SHIFT is the tip of the iceberg
Factory Obscura co-founder Laura Massenat hopes everybody’s mind is blown when SHIFT opens.
“It’s very ambitious and a lot of time in the making,” she told The Oklahoman. “We’re committed to paying our artists for this work. We’re committed to paying artists to learn how to make things more durable. This was made on a very tight budget with a lot of donated materials.”
This is definitely the start of something bigger. I’ll admit that it sounded too good to be true but this could potentially be a huge deal for Oklahoma City if Factory Obscura grows into a Meow Wolf-size operation. Think of how many artists it could employ.
When Laura Massenat isn’t spearheading art installations, she can often be found slinging beans at Elemental Coffee. That’s the same place where she invited Meow Wolf to visit Oklahoma and announced plans for SHIFT. By 2021, she estimated Factory Obscura might have a permanent location in OKC. Until then, get your SHIFT in gear.