MSCHF: The Spicy Present

Step into the world of MSCHF, where boundaries are redefined and conventions are challenged with each daring creation. Based in Brooklyn, the avant-garde collective seamlessly blends culture, technology, and social commentary in works designed to provoke, delight, and challenge their audience.

From the hype-worthy Big Red Boot to the microscopic Louis Vuitton handbag that fetched approximately $63,000 at auction, MSCHF’s founders, Kevin Wiesner, Lukas Bentel, and Gabriel Whaley, drive their mission forward with unmatched imagination and more than a hint of irony.

hube: You remix and repurpose many different mediums and forms, creating works that transcend the categories of art and design. Do you perceive a boundary between the two?

Lukas Bentel: I don’t think we see it as a boundary; I think all spaces are good spaces to make art. And honestly, oftentimes, the ones that have the boundary around them are less effective to make good work.

Kevin Wiesner: I also believe that art, particularly conceptual art, serves as the overarching framework for all of MSCHF’s creations at the highest lev-el. Within this framework, there are diverse specialties, each serving the initial concept.Our creations are driven by whatever best serves the concept, which, in my opinion, is often rooted in art.

h: Your work is characterised by freedom, audacity, and irony. Do you consider how future audiences might perceive it?

LB: I think, to an extent, we’re much more concerned with the present. This is something that we’ve talked about quite a bit internally-whether or not we are making futuristic or sci-fi work-and I would say very much that we aren’t. We’re working in a way that is an intensification of nettle, and we’re not really concerned with what it will look like in the future. A term that we use frequently when discussing where our pieces fit is the “spicy present.”

KW: They’re essentially intensifications of what already exists, which, l’d say, offer a different perspective on the question. I believe you can contextualise MSCHF within broader historical art movements. Hopefully, in the future, there might be a progression from that.

We’re consciously structured as a business, utilising powerful tools for creating anything and everything. This project is conceptual, but we see the tradition [we are a part of] evolving linearly from various artistic move-ments, including factory production, critical speculative design, and experimental online artist groups like K-HOLE and DIS. I envision this kind of evolution continuing. While there are uncertainties about the future, MSCHF can serve as a link in that evolving chain.