A Louis Vuitton bag smaller than a grain of sea salt. Boots that are too big to wear. Both of these unique works were created by “MSCHF,” an artist collective that became the talk of the town in 2023. MSCHF surprises people by creating more diverse forms of art, a departure from commonly known forms of art such as paintings and sculptures. Once it presents new works, people express an interest in them, and the works rapidly spread via social media, creating a great buzz around the art. Visitors can see about 100 works of art from MSCHF, who presents novel and influential works, in its first exhibition in an art museum, “MSCHF: NOTHING IS SACRED.” held in Daelim Museum located in Jongno Ward in Seoul until the end of March. The Argus applauds the message MSCHF wants to convey to society, focusing on the hidden meanings behind its works.

Before Reading

Location: Daelim Museum, 21, Jahamunno 4-gil, Jongno Ward, Seoul (It takes three minutes on foot from Gyeongbokgung Station Exit No. 3.)

Dates: 2023.11.10 - 2024.03.31

Time: Tues.- Thur., Sun. 11:00-19:00 (Entrance closing: 18:00) / Fri.-Sat. 11:00-20:00 (Entrance closing: 19:00) / Closed on Mondays.

Admission Fee: Adults: 17,000 won (US$12.73) / Teens: 5,000 won (US$3.74) / Infants and Children: 3,000 won (US$2.25)

1. Who is MSCHF?

“Nothing is sacred.” This is the slogan of the artist collective MSCHF. MSCHF was established by Gabriel Whaley, Kevin Wiesner, Lukas Bentel, and Stephen Tetreault in 2019, and it is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. The group “drops” its new works every two weeks, which means that it releases them on its own phone application and website. The new works are always original and attract great attention. MSCHF criticizes social systems and people’s psychology and behaviors through works that combine artifacts from many fields such as shoes, websites, robots, beverages, and games.

 The ARCHIVE section, the first section of the exhibition, shows the digital magazines that MSCHF publishes every quarter, named MSCHF Mag. Through iPads on the shelf, visitors can read a total of eight magazines including seven unique volumes and one special edition. The magazines contain all the works MSCHF has released so far and the messages of each work, and visitors can identify the values it pursues, suggestions for new projects, and its viewpoint that challenges mainstream culture. In the magazine, “Vol. 06: Eat More Meat Watch More Fox Stop Printing the Bible Stick Your Hands in Your Mouth,” an article asserting that Bible printing should be stopped is representative. It maintains that the Bible, the most printed book of all time, causes negative effects on the environment. In the process of printing the Bible, large volumes of CO2 are emitted, and therefore, the number of trees declines and the earth’s ability to reabsorb CO2 is weakened. Ultimately, this article tells the dark side of the mass production of the Bible, saying that printing the Bible contributes to the destruction of the environment. Simultaneously, at the end of the article, it suggests a groundbreaking alternative; it says that because the Bible is boring and too long to read, some phrases should be extracted and used to make a montage of short videos. In this way, MSCHF shows its counter-cultural view of the world and conveys its unique messages through the magazines.

2. MULTIPLAYER Section

The second section of the exhibition, the MULTIPLAYER section, presents works in the form of games, and visitors can participate in the games. “Aaaaahhh! Aaaaah!” This is the sound that is endlessly played on “Scream Club,” a website where users share their screams with other users. When visitors scan the QR code on the wall, it is linked to the website. Logging onto the website, visitors can hear a variety of screams of other users, that is, Scream Club members, and the screams that the visitors have recorded can be heard by others as well. In addition, the names of members who screamed for the longest time appear on the leaderboard at the edge of the website. As of February 26, 2024, the person who screamed for 1,503 seconds is in first place. MSCHF was inspired by Zoom calls and did this project in order to engender large-scale collective action among the public, and as a result, a lot of people shared their screams via the internet.

 Above this, in the exhibition room, visitors can experience a game named “Chair Simulator.” First, in order to play the game, visitors have to sit on the game machine that looks like a chair. Subsequently, they have to make characters move and sit on the chair, accumulate sit points, and buy other chairs with the points. The game is played in this way repeating these three steps. While characters are sitting down on the chair, the sit points are accumulating, but if they manage to sit a long time for the purpose of earning more points, the level on the discomfort meter rises, and they die, and as a result, the game ends. So as not to make the characters die, it is necessary to have them not sit on only one chair but rather move and sit in various chairs. Through this, MSCHF aimed to point out that existing real-life simulation games are in discord with daily life. For example, the video game, “The Sims,” is related in that it is a life simulation game that imitates the routines of contemporary people with such aspects as meals, sleep, parties, and vacations. However, this kind of life is not one that everyone can enjoy, and luxurious leisure activities in particular are only available to some people. On the other hand, “Chair Simulator” consists only of the movement of sitting on a chair, which most people do every day, so it is different from the Sims. In this way, “Chair Simulator” satirizes simulation games that are disconnected from real-life.

3. FRAUD FOR ALL, FRAUD FOR ONE Section

The third section, the FRAUD FOR ALL, FRAUD FOR ONE section, consists of works about public-participatory online/offline programs that criticize unreasonable and irrational social systems.

“Medical Bill Art” is a work that reflects MSCHF’s awareness of medical debt in the United States. “Medical debt,” an unfamiliar concept in South Korea where national health insurance functions well, is a familiar phrase and a common phenomenon in the United States. The work consists of three oil paintings that are drawn by enlarging three actual medical bills in the United States to about 72 inches long and 56 inches wide. The paintings were priced the same as the face value of the original medical bills, and all three paintings were sold, so a total of 73,360 dollars was generated. The profits were used to pay the debts of the owners of the bills. The bills, which were not worth anything, became oil paintings, and each work turned to reap 8,600 dollars, 17,700 dollars and 47,000 dollars, respectively. By transforming bills into paintings, it became possible to buy and sell them, and MSCHF showed the power of money with these works. As a result, the medical debts were paid, and the bills became invalidated. Through this work, MSCHF criticizes the U.S. medical insurance system that makes people depend on private insurance that puts too much pressure on individuals and shows how the value creation in the art world contrasts with the system in the United States.

 Walking past “Medical Bill Art” and turning around, visitors can see a robot writing letters by itself and working at a desk and chair without anyone. Young children’s handwriting is seen on large sheets of paper above the desk. This is “Children’s Crusade,” a robotic machine that writes letters by turning online messages in which people have written complaints about the government into children’s handwriting. Why borrow the handwriting of “children” to convey messages? It is because the handwriting of children is an effective method to convey political messages. This work started from the idea that “the most effective way to get in touch with members of Congress in the United States is to become a kid who writes endearing letters with a crayon.” Since calls and e-mails to the office of the U.S. Congress include messages of discontentment with the politicians, they tend to be easily neglected. Hence, the letters of kids can be a good way to make a politician look good. If they post the kid’s letter on their social media, it gets attention from a lot of people, and it is enough to give an impression of “a warmhearted politician that accepts the demands of children.” When looking at the letters on the board beside the work, visitors can see misspelled words and notice that capitalization is not used correctly, making them look like letters from kids. The letters include language to mimic a view of the world through the eyes of a child, such as “Hello mr. senator. my mommy says she is really mad at you,” or to communicate pure ideas of children such as “Sometimes my stomach feels weird when I eat a lot of almonds.” In addition, through the content of letters like, “I hate guns because they took my cousin recently,” and “Please pledge to stop taking NRA money as a first step,” an attempt is seen to influence the policies of the members of assembly by describing the gun violence that is worsening in the United States, through the voices of children. Ms. Roh, a visitor from the city of Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, 15 kilometers south of Seoul, commented, “I was impressed by the delivery of messages about preventing gun accidents as if written by children.” In this way, MSCHF is outstanding in that it presents unique-looking works, conveys messages of criticizing and satirizing social issues, and provides people with an opportunity to reconsider these issues.

4. FOR EVERYTHING ELSE, THERE’S MASTERCARD Section

Going one floor up the stairs, the FOR EVERYTHING ELSE, THERE’S MASTERCARD section appears, the fourth section, which shows the limited editions of items that MSCHF reinterpreted and transformed mass-produced products into. The works in this section criticize the psychology of contemporary people obsessed with possession, such as the inclination to possess something just because it is famous or a limited edition. Institutions and companies who consider customers’ psychology as a weakness, exploit it, and try to make a profit are targets of criticism as well.

 If there are a basketball with the signature of Michael Jordan, a famous American basketball player, do you want to purchase it? What would you do if it was presented with a certificate of authenticity and a video of him signing it? “Dunk Dot Biz” is a collection of these three pieces, and in the exhibition room, visitors can only see the basketball. Most people who purchased this work expected, without a doubt, that they would get the ball signed by the basketball player Michael Jordan, but their expectations were completely inaccurate. The basketball was signed by a different person with the same name, Michael Jordan, a journalist and professor at Long Island University in New York. In this manner, “Dunk Dot Biz” criticizes the psychology of people obsessed with celebrities and the resulting consumption culture.

 Passing several works, visitors can discover a microscope. When getting closer to and looking through it, visitors can find that there is a tiny bag on the substage. It is called the “Microscopic Handbag.” The bag, which is so small that the longest side of it is 700 micrometers, cannot even be identified with the naked eye as to whether it is a grain of sea salt or a bag. Thus, the microscope used to view it is displayed, and only when viewed under the lens, a figure of the bag can be seen. It is a Louis Vuitton bag elaborately made in the way that intravenous injections are produced. By drastically reducing the size of the handbag, MSCHF eliminated the function of the bag of holding things and only left the symbol of the brand “Louis Vuitton.” Through this work, which, MSCHF states, is the final word in bag miniaturization, the group intended to satirize the phenomenon of bags becoming far from practical and only functioning as a symbol of brands.

 Another work, red boots that are so big that they seem uncomfortable to wear and take off, is called “Big Red Boot,” and they are similar to the boots the protagonist Atom wears in the animated film “Astro Boy.”(2003) The work became more popular since several influencers, such as the American rappers Lil Wayne and Ice Spice, uploaded pictures and videos to their social media accounts wearing the red boots. They might look uncomfortable to wear, but according to those who have tried wearing them, they are comfortable and feel stable since they are made of rubber, so the upper part is flexible, and the bottom part is hard. Visitors can try wearing these red boots sitting on the chair on one side of the exhibition room. In addition, there are two follow-up works of “Big Red Boot,” comprising “Big Black Boot” and “MSCHF x Crocs. Big Red Boot (Yellow).” In these works, the color of the boots changed to black and yellow, respectively. As for “MSCHF x Crocs. Big Red Boot (Yellow),” it was made in collaboration with the shoe company Crocs and has holes on its surface. These two pairs of boots are available as well. By making abstract, unrealistic and cartoonish things into real products that can be worn, MSCHF made surrealistic images, similar to the increasing number of AI-generated images in social media, and brought them into the real world.

5. NOTHING IS SACRED Section

The Nothing Is Sacred section is the last section, which is also the title of the exhibition. In this section, works are presented that overthrow social ideas and common perceptions and blur the lines of the standards and boundaries of the world. MSCHF’s well-known works, “Jesus Shoes” and “Satan Shoes,” are representative. As visitors can tell from the names of the works, both are related to Catholicism and were made with the Nike Air Max 97.

“Jesus Shoes,” which are covered in white, were made in 2019 with 60cc of holy water from the Jordan River in the sole. Between the shoelaces, there are glossy crosses covered in silver and gold with Jesus Christ decorations on it. “Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.” This is from Matthew 14:25 in the Bible. As these shoes allude to the scripture that depicts Jesus walking on water, “MT.14:25” is written on the side of the shoes, and they sold for 1,425 dollars. When considering the high prices, visitors might think that MSCHF went to the Jordan River in person, brought back holy water, and poured it into the shoes; however, MSCHF said that it bought holy water from the Jordan River on Amazon and just used that. The shoes are a work that epitomizes the collaboration culture with celebrities and the idolization of brands with religious veneration. Even though there was no consultation, MSCHF arbitrarily created a collaboration between Nike and Catholicism.

 Passing by “Jesus Shoes” and taking the steps to the right, visitors can see “Satan Shoes” covered in black in contrast to the white ones. These are the follow-up work of “Jesus Shoes” made in 2021. Unlike “Jesus Shoes,” the shoes contain the blood of one of the MSCHF staff members and 60cc of red ink, and there is an inverted pentagonal star ornament in place of the cross. The shoes contain the verse of Luke 10:18, “He replied, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven,’” and “Luke 10:18” is written on the side of the shoes. MSCHF manufactured and sold 666 pairs of the shoes in accordance with the number 666 that represents Satan, and they were sold out within a minute. Contrary to “Jesus Shoes,” Nike filed a trademark infringement suit against MSCHF for this work. Nike cited in its complaint the reason for the lawsuit as being that the unapproved “Satan Shoes” could possibly cause chaos and decrease the value of the original product. Furthermore, they were concerned that, to Catholics, the work would be considered blasphemous, and thus provide Catholic customers with a reason to boycott Nike. Eventually, MSCHF reached an out-of-court settlement and spontaneously recalled all the shoes sold. Through “Jesus Shoes” and “Satan Shoes,” MSCHF broke the common conception that the sanctuary is inviolable.