The self-destructing sculptures of the MSCHF Collective’s new exhibition

With the exhibition Material Values, MSCHF continues its critique of the connection between the speculative value of art and the dynamics of contemporary capitalism.

The contemporary art gallery Nanzuka in Tokyo will present the Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF’s solo exhibition Material Values, following its first exhibition with the gallery in January 2024. MSCHF, founded in 2019, is a collective devoted to satirical and conceptual interventions that expose our contemporary cultural, political and economic paradoxes, leveraging the critique of wealth fetichism and volatile corporate operations. The show features paintings, installations and sculptures that revolve around the existing discrepancies between “the intrinsic value of art and its material value” in today’s society.

Alongside the series Animorph Painting, which reimagines renowned portraits of art history into contemporary icons and the Rain Cubicle Sculpture, the centrepiece of the exhibition is the Material value sculptures, from which its title derives. The work showcases contorted human figures made of solid indium – a rare metal of high demand for its semiconductor-related applications – constrained into a pedestal that tracks the real-time value of the raw material. Once the latter exceeds the artwork’s price the fitted device will raise the temperature of the sculpture to its melting point, which will then self-destruct to raise debates on the interconnectedness of both systems within capitalism, exposing the “subservience of art to investment” and the market’s inner contradictions.

Exhibition: MSCHF - Material Values Location: Nanzuka Underground, Tokyo, Japan Dates: from 1st February 2025  to 22nd March 2025

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