Art

Prepare to be Amazed at Amaze a new Cadillac House Art Exhibit in NYC

We have enjoyed the Cadillac House for its cool cafe and past art installations.  So when we learned that another Instagram-able art pop-up had appeared, we made sure to go! Little did we know that we were in for a colorful but spooky labyrinth of an experience! This surrealist selfie maze, titled AMAZE was a unique installation by architect Rafael de Cárdenas and visual artist, composer, and vocalist Sahra Motalebi.   “I think in this digital age, people just crave a physical experience in real time, in real life, that’s not virtual. It’s not in front of a laptop or your phone. But at the same time, we love making things that are great for photos that you can share with a lot of people.” Cecilia Dean, (Visionaire co-founder) reports.  I agree and that’s one of the reasons we love pop-ups so much.  They bring you out of the mundane allowing for multisensory exploration.

Walking in from this introductory, front wall, you have no idea what to expect.  But a few steps in, you’re in an enclosed room featuring a circular metal curtain.  Of course, my toddler was immediately drawn in for a game of hide and seek!

We played all sorts of pretend games here and enjoyed disappearing acts, shadow play, and races.  We couldn’t help however, to be intrigued by the  laughter that teased us into the other rooms.

It cackled overhead through the speaker system!

Somebody sounded hysterical and we weren’t sure why.  It both intrigued and entertained us!

And yes, we dressed in our black and white houndstooth, having previously done our research and having loved this pop art wall!

And then the overhead sounds turned into wicked cries…  And my 5-year-old daughter pictured here sliding down the corner wall, wasn’t so sure about the cackling noises anymore.

It wasn’t until I reminded her that we were in a fun pop-up and that the artist must be trying to scare us as if we were in a haunted house that she brightened up and thought that was awfully tricky.  We talked about how we dressed up for Halloween as witches and made the same scary noises.   And soon, she had the hilarious idea to try and scare others!

This hyper-chromatic, hallway of mirrors seemed to be made for selfies and proved to be a perfect practicing ground for her scary moves and sonic additions.

This carnival-esque room, prompted all sorts of primping, posing and photographing.  So while Instagram-ers were concentrating on shooting the perfect shot,  Juliet took this perfect opportunity to jump out from the corner, and scare them much to their delight!  Little did she realize that her projected shrieks and cackling laughter, helped complete this strange and surreal experience with a little toddler fun.

 

For my tips on getting Instagram-able shots, click here!

For our review on the new NYC egg-themed pop – up that you can still buy tickets to, click here!

AMAZE is on view, free to the public until JUNE 10th

The Gallery at Cadillac House

330 Hudson Street, New York, New York, 10013.

Hours are 8:00 am to 7:00 pm Monday to Friday and 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday.

 

To see the last art installation at the Cadillac House entitled, Toilet Paper Paradise, click here

The Egg House, an EGG-cellent way to Brighten Up Your Day

Juliet and I love NY for its cool pop-ups, and artsy installations so when Egg House announced its arrival to the Lower East Side, we bought tickets, skipped a bit of school and enjoyed a mommy and me day out!  (I know… I win the coolest mom ever award, right?  She’s only in PreK people..missing a couple hours won’t hurt her).   The egg-sthetic inside included bright yellow, and whites and every room, wall, and corner had an Instagram-able moment to enjoy.

BiuBiu Xu, the founder and visionary behind this artsy pop-up says that the egg-theme was inspired by Xu’s fascination with New York City brunch culture.   “We believe in the familiarity and universality that eggs bring to people, therefore we created an imaginary place where people can momentarily escape to and share the love of eggs.”  The sunny – side up egg actually inspired the look and feel for the pop-up.  And it sure left US feeling sunny – side – up!

As you can see, we really had a ball!

“Last one in is a rotten egg!” was written by the ball pit and was one of the many cute egg-centric sayings found within the space.

Some even inspired silly poses.

We loved all the details.  Did you know that Juliet used to sleep with a whisk, she loved it so much?? Random.  I know.  So here she is posing with her favorite kitchen utensil and an egg stuffie that she brought from home lol.

TheEGG-xperience is open from April 7th to May 21st.  General admission is $18 for adults (kids 3 and under are free), and kids 4-10 are $12.  It’s really worth it in my opinion because compared to the free pop-ups, this one with the timed tickets, felt calm and collected instead of overwhelming and crowded.  There were 6 Instagrammable installations, each with little to no wait time, and though the website said people mostly spend around 45 minutes there, we happily spent a whopping 1.5 hours there having an EGG-cellent time!

Also unlike the other free pop-ups, there really was no pressure to move from station to station.  You could lounge in an egg chair, eat your egg-themed dessert from one of their partner egg vendors (Think Eggloo for instance), play in the ball pit til your kids got tired of it and go back and forth from first station to the last in any order you wanted.  Nothing was timed and the vibe was fun and playful.

For more details see our IG story now while it lasts or visit @TheEggHouse.  They’re heading to LA and Shanghai next!! So catch it while you can!

Family tips:

• strollers are not allowed inside
• there is a great playground a block away
• no public restroom on-site
• wear yellow for even brighter, matchy photos!

Love yellow? Check out this yellow themed art gallery we found last year!

Don’t forget to walk around the neighborhood and check out all the amazing street art!  See some inspirational examples from past lower east side grafiti walls here!