(Photo: Laura Collins)
By Gabriella Paiella
Ever wish that visiting a museum was more like watching reality TV and simultaneously browsing TMZ, all while a few wine coolers deep? You're in luck.
Curators Matt Harkins and Viviana Olen -- the duo behind the Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan Museum that cropped up in Brooklyn last year -- are back with a new, even more esoteric exhibit: the Olsen Twins Hiding From the Paparazzi.
Related: The Ashley Olsen Look Book
Harkins and Olen initially met at UCB (because of course they did), then became roommates. After watching the documentary The Price of Gold, they were inspired to Kickstart the Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan museum -- right in their apartment.
Soon after, they discovered that Chicago-based artist Laura Collins, who had submitted a print to their previous exhibit, also had a series of paintings depicting the Olsen twins hiding from the paparazzi.
"We were like, why is this not in a museum? Why are people not losing their shit over this?" Olen tells me. "And we were just like, oh, well we have a museum."
This project's Kickstarter was so successful that they managed to move it from their apartment to an abandoned doctor's office in Brooklyn.
Collins's artwork lines the hallway, which is operating under a "jungle" theme, complete with large green-paper leaves. Mary-Kate and Ashley are not identified in each painting, which Collins says is intentional. "I have no idea who's who. I wanted it to be like, they're kinda interchangeable. We almost don't care who's who."
That's not to say they don't receive individual attention, too. The exhibit's "period room" is modeled after Mary-Kate Olsen and Olivier Sarkozy's extremely private wedding, infamous for reportedly having "bowls and bowls of cigarettes" for the guests to enjoy. It's darkly beautiful and dramatic, with individual black-and-white cigarettes for sale. Bowls of cigarettes really are an easy way to add an elegant touch to your dinner table.
THNK1994 Museum Period Room (Photo: Gabriella Paiella)
Visitors can pore over vintage clips of the Olsens during their child-star prime in a room that recreates SVU Detective Dominick Carisi's office.
(Photo: Gabriella Paiella)
(Photo: Gabriella Paiella)
And there are interactive elements as well, including the phone that rings periodically and offers a role in Netflix's Fuller House to whoever picks up. I looked down at the phone. Candace Cameron Bure smirked up at me. "We designed it like a hellscape," Harkins earnestly explains.
(Photo: Gabriella Paiella)
While there's more than enough material on the Olsens to fill the hallowed halls of many a museum, this exhibit branches out beyond its titular subjects to include artwork based on other similarly famous figures.
For those in need of quiet reflection time, there's the calming "Sanctuary," which includes fake candles and an artistic representation of Kylie Jenner's aura.
(Photo: Gabriella Paiella)
If that's not enough, further soul purification can be found in the room where visitors are encouraged to take a seat on the Lisa Vanderpump Confessional Stump and Snapchat their confessions. Everything about this area is fantastically grotesque, even the stump, and I had to leave immediately. (Also, I don't know how to use Snapchat.)
(Photo: Gabriella Paiella)
But the mood lightens with the Kylie Jenner Selfie Station, a room that includes a gigantic Blackberry, Birkin bag, and infinity scarf.
(Photo: Gabriella Paiella)
(Photo: Gabriella Paiella)
I was the only guest at the museum during the visiting hours, which especially added to the feeling that I was wandering through a fever dream of my own design -- like I had fallen asleep on a stack of old Us Weeklys midway through a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills marathon and woken up in the darkest recesses of my mind. This eerie feeling was only heightened by the presence of a sink in every room.
And yet, I wandered out desperate for more -- a massive museum devoted to celebrity-worship culture. A Lindsay Lohan wing, a rotating Kardashian gallery, tours by friendly docent Paris Hilton. The mid-aughts deserve as much.
The exhibit is open until May 1 and includes a lineup of related events.
More from The Cut:
Melania Trump's Dos and Don'ts for Staying Beautiful
Secrets From Kim Kardashian's Hairstylist
The 50 Best Movie Beauty Moments of All Time
25 Famous Women on Female Friendship
The 10 Best Bridal Looks From the Spring Shows