Drake might be reppin’ Toronto, but art angel Chloe Wise is holding it down for Montreal, opening her first solo show at her hometown’s Division Gallery this week. Pissing, Shmoozing, and Looking Away sees further development of Wise’s breakfast foods-turned-fashion accessories sculptural series that basically broke the internet back in October. After fellow artist and actress India Menuez rocked Wise’s Bagel No. 5, a bagel purse adorned with Chanel’s signature chain, charm, and logo to a Baz Luhrmann screening, the “bag” quickly became the only food item on fashion editors’ minds and even scored its own BuzzFeed article.
Pissing, Shmoozing, and Looking Away is basically Wise’s ultimate boulangerie meets luxury department store with Lower East Side sex shop vibes thrown in for good measure. There’s the Croissant Dior, Coach Bagel and Locks, Prada Challah, Belgian Moschino Waffle, and–of course–the Fendi Baguette. The show also includes a few fetish pieces, including the Matzochism Paddle, the most kosher sex toy you’re likely to find, which comes complete with a Dooney & Bourque charm.
But all these impossibly clever pieces aren’t just for the lols. In combining fashion, food, and fetish, Wise’s work combines society’s most common guilty pleasures, be they commercial, edible, or sexual. In this way, Pissing, Shmoozing, and Looking Away‘s pieces are the ultimate symbols of excess. Wise makes a playful and poignant commentary about how society mythologizes and markets desires, whether we’re hungry for Balmain or Belgian waffles.
Credits
Text Emily Manning
Photography Binky Gutman