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Our new summer experience has come to life in Denver and Las Vegas. We got to chat with some of the designers, artists and performers of Phenomenomaly.
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Photo by Nathan Sparks
Summer has brought a few of our favorite mysteries such as: how many hot dogs can you eat in one sitting? What if fireworks made a different sound than “boom”? And of course, what IS Phenomenomaly?
Meow Wolf Denver and Las Vegas are playing host to Phenomenomaly, a performance unlike any the multiverse has ever seen. Guests will join the Lil’ Bigg Miss Fitts as they attempt to see the flickerwerm migration. Check out the full Field Guide to Phenomenomaly here.
We’ve got costumes, we’ve got puppets, we’ve got masks – and some amazing talent behind them. Our team had the opportunity to get to know some of the artists behind what you’ll see at Phenomenomaly.
I am Kate Major, and I made Plotzini for Phenomenomaly. I took a lot of inspiration from clown theory, not necessarily how they look but how they react to the world – things like subverting expectations. Normally, that would be the body movements of a clown, but I applied that to what the costume looks like. So the expected reality is that a creature would have one face, right? I subverted that by giving Plotzini faces all around its head.
I also took inspiration from an already existing Meow Wolf character: Plotzo, the leader of the Undermallers, who shows up in all Meow Wolf exhibitions in some form. I also created the first Plotzo live character (like the whole head and costume and everything) so any time you see Plotzo, I made that too! Plotzini is like a cousin to Plotzo so they have the same kind of mischievous DNA, but Plotzo comes from a grimier, chaotic place, whereas Plotzini comes from more of a fun, effervescent kind of mischief.
I’m hoping Plotzini can bring a fun, mischievous energy to this group. It’s called the Lil’ Bigg Miss Fitts so they’re all slightly different with different personalities. It’s my intention that Plotizini would be very childlike, lighthearted, mischievous. I say I like whimsy, strangeness, fun for the sake of it in the world.
I hope when travelers see or interact with Plotzini, they don’t know what to expect and are maybe a little nervous. A little bit of nervousness can open you up to new experiences, where you’re like, “I’m not really sure what this guy’s gonna do but I’m here for it and hopefully it ends up being fun in the end,” which it will, because that’s the kind of energy Plotzini brings!
I started at Meow Wolf as wardrobe coordinator with Denver in June 2021, shortly before opening. I did costume fabrication and design, not only for Denver but all the other exhibits. It was just so, so fun. There were no rules, really – and that’s what great about Meow Wolf. It’s just whatever your imagination can come up with is right and good!
I worked doing that until February of 2025 then I left to move to Chicago, where there isn’t a Meow Wolf unfortunately. I miss it dearly but I am incredibly lucky that Meow Wolf still has me back for a bunch of different things. I started a fashion show called Absolute Rubbish and they had me back to facilitate that process and pick out designers and make a couple looks.
I’m also the Costume Project Manager for Phenomenomaly! Outside of making the Plotzini costumes, I’m communicating with the other 3-4 costume and puppet designers and designer groups that are making puppets, costumes, headpieces and crazy monsters that show up in Phenomenomaly. They’ve made some truly phenomenal things and lowkey I was fangirling as these are people I’ve been fans of for years, I was already following them on social media and checking out their work. So it’s a really amazing moment to get to work with them on such a close level and Meow Wolf made that happen for me! It’s a pretty magical place.
Meow Wolf has always been great at showing off all these crazy different kinds of art, right? With that, performance is nothing without its costumes, costumes are nothing without their performers, so they’re hand in hand. I want to really push that idea of wearable [art pieces].
P.S. We’ve interviewed Kate before! Check out the article here.
Hi, we’re Monsters of the Underworld. I’m Dicapria and I’m Tess. We are a duo design team based in New Orleans that make big creature wearables, puppets, headpieces and freaky costumes.
We’re designing and making ten wearable headpieces that will be featured in the upcoming Meow Wolf experience, Phenomenomaly.
We’re really inspired by all the weird little creature dudes that live in the ocean, so a lot of our design process was reimagining them as otherworldly beings then thinking about how we can create those shapes and textures using textiles.
We built the bases out of foam and wrapped them in fabric. Then we made all these different textile elements that were inspired by all the wild textures that wiggly underwater creatures have.
We did soooo much hand sewing of horns, we made little moss rocks covered in yarn, fabric ruffles and little pillows, wrapped yarn around horns and eyes and spent so much time creating the texture of these fabric bubbles.
Once we start adding all these layers of details, we start to see the character really come to life and we get to decide if it should have eyelashes or a silly mustache or how many teeth, really creating each of their personalities and moods.
My name is Basqo Bim, I’m an artist in New Orleans, and I made ten headpiece masks for Phenomenomaly at Omega Mart.
I made these mask headpieces out of a few different materials, which is something that comes out of a DIY ethic. I use foam, tulle, fabric, a lot of found objects, disassembled costume jewelry, stuff you can buy at a craft store or thrift shop, whatever – it’s kind of an assemblage of decorations and adornments on the masks. I used hockey helmets as the base, which was a tip from one of the Meow Wolf creative team members. Funnily enough, my partner was like, “Why don't you use these food safety domes?” which are mesh. We attached those to the top of the hockey helmet to create a base and added the tulle wig thing and the mask.
I’m hoping these masks bring a sense of mystery and intrigue to the visitors, almost like an ethereal kind of feel to it. I hope they make the visitors feel curious about what’s going on in the characters’ heads. I hope the performers feel a sense of being able to cut loose, be free and put themselves out there in a way that maybe they’re normally not able to. When you’re behind a mask, especially one of this size with a full head covering back and front, there’s a sense of complete anonymity.
When I wear them, it definitely gives me this feeling of the trickster persona archetype that’s pretty common in mythology. That’s my hope – that they feel they can have some fun with it then flip a switch to channel a serene, beatific aura. To still be able to convey those duelling personas with the same character.
There are just so many mental blocks that we put on ourselves when it comes to [making art]. I don’t have a background in art, I didn’t go to school for it, that kind of thing – I just fell into it as an adult, starting with illustration.
Living in New Orleans for eight years now, I’ve fallen into this costume/mask/wearable, myth-building, kind of thing. When it comes to creating the actual objects, it never has to be this perfect, manicured, polished thing. What you make doesn’t have to look incredible when you’re not wearing it – that can be part of it. And the materials that I use – they’re not these high end things…you can use memory foam from a mattress you don’t use anymore, or upholstery cushions, anything like that. I have all these materials in front of me that, at first glance, don’t look like much of anything but the fun part to me is about figuring out a way to make something. Taking things apart, cutting this, gluing this, attaching this here in ways that maybe they wouldn’t traditionally be.
You can see all these wearable art pieces in real life at Phenomenomaly at Meow Wolf in Denver and Las Vegas through August 9, 2025.
