Art to buy

Title: “Please Do Not Interact With The Art (Except When You Must)”

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Year: 2025

Medium: A velvet rope (dangling), a sensor-activated alarm (too sensitive), 37 ambiguous objects (deliberately fragile), a security guard (overly involved).

Dimensions: Shifts depending on transgressions.

“Please Do Not Interact With The Art (Except When You Must)” is a rigorous examination of boundaries, authority, and the fine line between passive observation and inevitable catastrophe. The installation consists of 37 objects placed throughout the gallery space, their arrangements echoing both order and an accident waiting to happen. Each object teeters just slightly, as if placed in mild defiance of gravity.

A single velvet rope hangs in the middle of the room, unattached to anything, useless yet present.

An omnipresent sign warns: PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE ARTWORK.

However, hidden motion sensors trigger a piercing alarm if a visitor steps too close,the definition of too close fluctuating wildly. Some experience the siren from metres away. Others only realize they’ve transgressed when a security guard appears, shaking their head in quiet disappointment.

Adding to the confusion, select objects are labeled: “PLEASE INTERACT.”

But these labels are written in faint, barely legible text and are placed facing the wall.

Visitors must decide: To interact, or not? To test the system, or submit to its unseen logic? The security guard watches. The alarm waits. The velvet rope sways ever so slightly in the artificial breeze.

“We accept authority without question until it contradicts itself. Then we are lost.”

, Davos

This work centres around institutional critique, performative obedience, and the aesthetics of control. With “Please Do Not Interact With The Art (Except When You Must)”, Davos weaponizes the fundamental rules of gallery etiquette, turning the act of looking into an act of risk.

The installation’s tension lies in its inconsistencies. The velvet rope,normally a symbol of separation,offers no clear division. The alarm enforces an invisible yet arbitrary boundary. The security guard, rather than preventing infractions, appears only after they occur, his silent reproach more unsettling than any verbal warning.

And then, of course, there are the 37 objects themselves. Are they art? Are they props? Are they traps? No one knows for sure. The only certainty is that, at some point, someone will set off the alarm.

Visitor Guidelines:

• Do not touch the artwork. (Unless you must.)

• The security guard cannot answer your questions. He is part of the piece.

• If you hear the alarm, assume it was your fault.

• If you do not hear the alarm, assume you have missed the point.

Price: £785,000 (includes objects, alarm system, and an ongoing agreement with the security guard).

Limited Edition Artifact: A signed PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH sign (edition of 14), available for £120,000 each.

Critics’ Reactions:

•“A brutal interrogation of institutional control. I have never been so afraid of an alarm.”

• “Davos forces us to question the nature of permission. I was reprimanded three times, and I deserved it.”

• “I did not touch the art. And yet, I still feel guilty.”

With “Please Do Not Interact With The Art (Except When You Must)”, Davos invites us into a paradox: a space where we are simultaneously free and restricted, where we follow the rules until we realize,too late,that we’ve already broken them.

The Last Frame is Yours

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Medium: 127-hour single-channel video, involuntary audience participation, signed NDAs, mandatory reflective silence.

Screening Format: 16K digital projection, no subtitles.

Runtime: 5 days, 7 hours, 12 minutes. No intermissions.

The Last Frame is Yours is not a film. It is a commitment, a test, a sentence. At 127 hours in length, the piece obliterates the notion of passive spectatorship, demanding total submission from its audience. Gallery-goers must sign a waiver before entering, acknowledging their understanding that no one is permitted to leave until the final frame has been seen.

The film’s structure is elusive: a meandering collage of unedited security footage, flickering landscapes filmed at one frame per hour, actors reading novels in languages they don’t understand with deliberate hesitation, and entire stretches of black screen where the only soundtrack is the lo-res recording of a someone filling a car with petrol. At irregular intervals, a clock appears, but it does not tell the time.

Viewers are provided with a single, numbered blanket and a deliberately uncomfortable chair. Meals are served in near silence, consisting of a thin broth and dry crackers, a menu devised in collaboration with sleep deprivation researchers. At night (though time loses meaning quickly), pre-recorded voices murmur speculative reflections on the nature of endings, though it is never clear who is speaking.

Davos insists the audience must earn the final frame. Only those who endure the full experience are granted the right to see it. What happens in the last moment remains unknown,viewers sign an NDA and are forbidden from discussing it outside the screening.

Artist Statement:

“This work is a short film that I have worked on whilst researching my magnum opus, a 300 hour feature filmed on Hampstead Heath called Fred Astaire goes to Space.”

, Davos

Curator’s Notes:

This work is the culmination of a career-long investigation into the intersection of time, endurance, and the collapse of voluntary engagement. With The Last Frame is Yours, he transcends conventional filmic expectations, creating a piece that is at once cinematic, sculptural, and carceral.

Drawing from the durational legacies of Warhol’s Empire and Douglas Gordon’s 24 Hour Psycho, but stripping away the safety of optional departure, Davos forces the viewer into a state of radical submission. The fluctuating pace,sometimes glacial, sometimes violently abrupt,mirrors the psychological erosion of captivity, though unlike most imprisonment, this is one the audience has chosen.

The final frame, withheld until total surrender, serves as both punishment and reward. Those who reach it emerge transformed, though no one can say exactly how.

Visitor Guidelines:

• Once admitted, attendees may not leave until the screening is complete.

• Bathroom breaks are allowed, but must be taken in silent, single-file procession, monitored by a gallery attendant.

• No external timekeeping devices are permitted. Phones must be left outside.

• At the end of the screening, attendees are required to sit in silent reflection for one hour before departure.

Price: £1,750,000 (includes blanket, numbered certificate of completion, and exclusive access to a single still from the final frame).

Limited Edition Prints: A series of five images from indeterminate points in the film, titled You Were Here, But When?, is available for £250,000 each.

Critics’ Reactions:

• Sally Quant: “A relentless, unforgiving masterpiece.”

• Michel Downton: “Davos has done what no filmmaker has dared: he has made time itself the antagonist.”

• The Torquay Guardian: “I lasted 84 hours before I broke and was carried to A and E on a passing window-cleaner’s ladder. I can never know what I missed. This will haunt me forever.”

The Last Frame is Yours is not a film you watch. It is a film you survive.

Room 3: Exhibition Wall Panel

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Compton, Room 3: A Turning Point (1980,1995), 2025

Printed text on canvas

Room 3: A Turning Point reimagines the traditional exhibition wall panel as a work of art, transforming informational text into a poetic and conceptual meditation. Printed on canvas, this piece blurs the boundaries between documentation and creation, challenging viewers to reflect on how narrative shapes our understanding of art, time, and legacy.

Compton’s mastery lies in their ability to elevate the ordinary. By isolating and reframing text, they invite the audience to focus on its rhythm, structure, and emotional weight. The work’s minimalist design, with precise typography and balanced composition, mirrors the quiet intensity of its content, drawing attention to every carefully chosen word.

This piece is an ode to Compton’s enduring fascination with language as both medium and message, offering a profound commentary on art’s capacity to interpret itself. A singular and thought-provoking addition to any collection, Room 3: A Turning Point embodies their reputation as a boundary-pushing innovator in contemporary art.

Price on Request.

Billionairism – the best art -ism since Impressionism?

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In the ever-evolving panorama of contemporary art, a provocative and opulent movement has emerged: Billionairism. This avant-garde trend audaciously melds the extravagance of wealth with the profundity of artistic expression, creating a spectacle that is as much about opulence as it is about art.

Defining Billionairism

Billionairism is characterized by its grandiose scale, lavish materials, and themes that oscillate between satire and homage to affluence. Artists within this movement employ a visual lexicon replete with symbols of luxury,yachts, private jets, and exclusive commodities,rendered in mediums ranging from gilded canvases to diamond-encrusted sculptures. The movement serves as both a mirror and a magnifying glass, reflecting society’s fascination with wealth while scrutinizing its impact on culture and values.

Iconic Artworks of Billionairism

One of the seminal pieces epitomizing Billionairism is The Golden Paradox by the enigmatic artist known as QWERTY. This installation features a life-sized, 24-karat gold-plated Ferris wheel, each carriage occupied by intricately crafted figures representing the ultra-wealthy. The work juxtaposes the cyclical nature of amusement with the perpetual pursuit of wealth, inviting viewers to ponder the true cost of luxury.

Another noteworthy contribution is Opulence Revisited by the duo Gild & Gilt. This mixed-media piece incorporates shredded stock certificates and crushed gemstones, encapsulated in resin to form a mosaic of a burning dollar sign. The artwork serves as a poignant commentary on the volatility of wealth and the ephemeral nature of material possessions.

The Satirical Undertones

While Billionairism dazzles with its display of affluence, it is deeply rooted in satire. The movement echoes the irreverence of Pop Art, much like Roy Lichtenstein’s works that left interpretation up to the viewer, often ridiculing the subjects they portrayed.  Similarly, Billionairism challenges the audience to discern whether it glorifies wealth or critiques its excesses, thereby engaging viewers in a dialogue about societal values.

Becoming Part of the Movement

To immerse oneself in Billionairism is to engage with art that is as thought-provoking as it is visually stunning. Collectors and enthusiasts are drawn to its audacious commentary and the exclusivity it represents. Acquiring a piece from this movement is not merely a purchase but an entry into a discourse on wealth, power, and art’s role in reflecting and shaping societal norms.

In a world where the lines between art and affluence continue to blur, Billionairism stands as a testament to the enduring power of art to provoke, challenge, and inspire.

Regent’s Street digital painting by Hedge Fund

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Hedge Fund’s digital painting of Regent Street emerges as a bold reconfiguration of urban iconography, blending sharp contours with chromatic discord to confront the viewer with a distilled essence of modernity. The work echoes the socio-aesthetic critiques of the Pop Art movement, particularly in its Warholian flattening of depth and its unapologetic use of color as a declarative rather than descriptive device.

Foregrounded by the figure of a woman mid-gesture, the composition speaks to the alienation and fleeting connections emblematic of metropolitan life. Hedge Fund’s treatment of her form,outlined in stark, almost aggressive black,is a nod to the Neo-Expressionist embrace of emotional immediacy. The surrounding figures, rendered with less intensity, function as passive actors in this theatrical tableau of the mundane. The choice to situate these figures against the commercial backdrop of Regent Street,a site saturated with the histories of consumerism and architectural grandeur,imbues the work with an underlying tension.

In many ways, the artist evokes Walter Benjamin’s musings in The Arcades Project: “Cities are the realized dreams of modernity, but also its battlegrounds.” Hedge Fund captures this duality through a collision of geometric precision and an irreverent disregard for photorealistic fidelity. The palette,subdued yet punctuated by the acidic yellow of the woman’s hair,heightens the sense of dissonance, evoking a subdued palette similar to Edward Ruscha’s explorations of Americana, though transposed into a European context.

What sets this digital painting apart is its simultaneous embrace and critique of the digital medium. The hyper-saturation and precision feel deeply rooted in the algorithmic logic of digital creation, while the human subjects retain a rawness and individuality that resists technological homogenization. Hedge Fund‘s work thus becomes a dialogic site where the past and future of art wrestle for dominance.

Ultimately, Hedge Fund‘s Regent Street is a resonant meditation on temporality and space. It does not invite the viewer to linger in beauty but rather compels them to interrogate their role as both participant and observer in the constructed spectacle of urban life. As the late John Berger might have remarked, “The way we see things is affected by what we know.” Here, Hedge Fund challenges us to confront not only what we know of Regent Street but also what we might prefer to ignore.