Feel Like Miuccia Prada, Ride A Slide

If you live in or are visiting New York City or its environs and you do not go see the Carsten Höller show that just opened at the New Museum, I don’t want to ever see your Philistine face in here again. Okay? Okay. There’s a pill-clock. And one experiential piece that employs a simple sensory illusion to make you feel like your nose is growing, and then shrinking, and then growing, and the trick is so simple but so weird that I just can’t stop thinking about it. There’s also a huge aquarium inset with three Plexiglass alcoves, sized just right that you can lie back, stick your head in one, and look really closely at all the fish; a bird-cage mobile filled with singing finches; and an immersion tank you can float in. But really, let’s cut to the chase here: you want to do the slide. It’s like a trippier, colder, faster waterpark slide, and it goes right through two floors of the museum. You catch flashes of the other artworks through the glass windows in the tube, and it bottoms out in a darkened room full of flashing white neon lights. I did it three times! The people in the flashing room clap when you finish, and how long has it been since you saw that in a museum? Just because Höller’s slides are all famous — Miuccia has one in her office! — doesn’t make it hack-y or in any way lame to really, really love the slide. Just do the slide. Then get back to me. Don’t worry, I’ll wait here.