NEW YORK—It's not often that Santa and sex toys are mentioned in the same sentence, but in this case, Santa
is a sex toy. The Los Angeles-based artist
Paul McCarthy opened the exhibition "Peter Paul Chocolates" on November 15 at
Maccarone, turning the gallery into a temporary chocolate factory pumping out a thousand 10-inch chocolate figurines-cum-sex toys titled
Santa with Butt Plug, each day through December 24. The exhibition comes complete with a candy store shop front and a staff of six, including master chocolatier
Peter Greweling. And
according to the Times (London), it's the chocolate (supplied by the luxury chocolate company Guittard), and not the sex, that has dealer
Michele Maccarone all hot and bothered. "I’ve been eating this chocolate nonstop for over a week,” she told the
Times, which reported she was "drawling like an agitated
Loyd Grossman," “and I’m, like, raging crazy. I’ve, like, not only broken out in spots, but I went to see my shrink this morning and said: ‘I’m having raging panic attacks’ and she was like, ‘Michele, how much chocolate are you eating?’"