The original lasted just over a month. (Images by Matthew Rettenmund)
On Wednesday, I made sure to check out Luna Luna the day it opened in NYC after an L.A run. The installation, at the Shed, is a recreation of a German theme park as imagined — nearly 40 years ago — by such artists as Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf and others.
The only reason the park could be reimagined so exactly? Its contents were boxed up and stored in Texas all these years — forgotten.
A walk through the set-up is sobering, in my opinion. It is wildly imaginative, but also dark, haunted, at times sinister-seeming. On top of knowing that many of the artists have died (a couple this year), the overall vibe is more a hyena-like hysteria than harmless mirth.
Think about what it was like inside Willy Wonka's factory — a world of pure imagination, but one with a couple of nightmares along the way.
I would recommend avoiding the Pavilion. There's a line to get in and it's ultimately just a short glass maze that feels like a COVID hotbox. I also was not thrilled that the cast, dressed outlandishly, carried butterflies on strings and would let them gently tap our heads, which felt ... a li'l dirty.
The cool part was seeing so much of Haring's sweet-hearted figures and Basquiat's absolutely bonkers Ferris wheel, which randomly had provocative words like PORNOGRAPHY on it, not to mention the single funniest part of the whole park — a giant monkey's behind. (You can buy dolls based on it for $65 in the gift shop.)
It's a small, intense experience with lots of interesting photography, one whose working rides (you can't actually ride them) exude a lot of temporal confusion, with lights going up and down, music on and off and all the paying guests seeming like spirits wandering through.
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