You’re probably familiar with MSCHF’s shoes. The offbeat Brooklyn collective sparked what co-founder Kevin Wiesner deemed a “satanic panic” when it collaborated with Lil Nas X to drop Satan-themed sneakers to promote the rapper’s video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” Each modified Nike Air Max 97, decorated with pentagram pendants and a drop of human blood in the soles, drew outrage online and led to calls for boycotts of Nike, who had nothing to do with the stunt and sued. Then came the inescapable Astro Boy–inspired Big Red Boots, an unlikely New York Fashion Week favorite worn by Dorian Electra, Sarah Snyder, and TikTok influencers galore. Impractical as the boots may be, they got people talking and are still raising the internet’s eyebrows.
The collective’s first museum survey, “MSCHF: Nothing Is Sacred,” at Seoul’s Daelim Museum, elicits the same effect—and proves its penchant for freaky footwear only scratches the surface of its prolific output. Across five floors, the group gathered 130 objects spanning four years of viral stunts and fashion drops that unpack the machinations undergirding our social, economic, and cultural realities. Self-serious brands are easy targets for their tomfoolery. There’s a wall of empty shopping bag replicas—Hermés, Kith, Supreme—on sale for $40, affording thrills of performative consumerism minus the cost. The Cease & Desist Grand Prix trapped companies like Tesla and Disney in a race to send MSCHF cease and desist orders to stop using their logo. A tiny Louis Vuitton bag reduces haughty brand moments to a microscopic scale.
It turns out MSCHF can also cheekily critique the art world with a similar devil-may-care sleight of hand. Severed Spots (2020) chopped up a Damien Hirst dot painting by framing the individual dots, selling them for $480 each, and offloading the hole-filled paper for $261,000. “I’d like to say it’s a hopeful sign the art market still has hunger for innovation,” Wiesner said at the time. But perhaps not the type MSCHF provides. Just two years later, the group unveiled ATM Leaderboard, putting the bank accounts of Art Basel Miami Beach fairgoers on display for everyone to see. The group’s stunts fall squarely into the realm of performance art—only we’re the unwitting participants, and our reactions shape how the subject is perceived.
