FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

• Product •

Wink World merchandise

After going through Wink World, stop by its pop-up shop and take a piece of the experience home with you. The psychedelic art house sells fun and artsy pieces like Slinky bracelets, beanies, alien earrings, collectible pins, huge toy Slinkies, T-shirts, flashlights, gloves, glow sticks, children’s toys, hair accessories, hats and more. It’s free to enter Area15, where Wink World is housed, but visitors must purchase tickets to enter the experience. –KM

Benefit

Experience the kaleidoscopic vision the kinetic spinners create; each spinner is a unique work of art.

Chelsea Linares

Meet this creative Winkster

Chelsea Linares is just as colorful and creative as the experience she oversees—Wink World at Area15. As the Wink World lead—or “lead Winkster” as she’s called—Linares’ duties include the opening and closing of the experience, overseeing the staff and customer service.

“We’re a psychedelic art house,” she says. “You start off in the black-light art gallery and then it transforms into six different infinity rooms, each individually orchestrated with different music, lights and sound. It was created by Chris Wink, founder of Blue Man Group. It’s super fun, vibrant, totally something you need to have an open mind to. It’s an experience.”

You could say Wink World and Linares are a perfect fit; she’s been with the experience since its opening in January. Linares was raised in Las Vegas—“but my roots are 100% Mexican,” she says— and loves to be creative and view the world from different perspectives. “Creation, that’s my thing,” she says. “Being creative. And that’s what I love about Wink Word—it’s a whole different perspective.” She is a proponent of a holistic, alternative lifestyle and alternative fashion. She’s also a yoga instructor, integrated nutrition health coach, owner and creator of Space Head Jewelry—“accessories for the spiritually conscious”—and is an aspiring photographer. “I truly believe in the metaphysical, the otherworldly—it can transform if you let it,” Linares says. “This is something that is really important to me.”

And she says she sees Wink World transform its visitors. “When people walk in, their face just lights up and they’re on a different planet—that initial reaction is just so amazing to me,” she says. “Second is seeing people come out after experiencing Wink World—seeing the full circle, the full experience and they come out and they’re like, ‘My mind is so expanded right now.’ To see that transformation when they go through it—I love that.” –Kiko Miyasato