ARTFCITY

Paul is an artist and lecturer, currently living and working in London, UK. Paul pioneered the use of video game cartridges as an artistic medium and created the first hacked video game artworks. His Nintendo cartridge work was premiered in 2000, he formed the programming collective BEIGE shortly afterwards, and BEIGE members subsequently used his hacked Nintendo concept to create a distinct body of work that has been exhibited internationally. Regularly exhibits at Seventeen Gallery, London while solo and collaborative work has been shown at the Akademie der Kunste [Berlin], Whitney Museum of Modern Art [NY], Deadtech [Chicago], Vilma Gold [London], Witte de With CENTRE [Rotterdam],Whitechapel Gallery [London], New Museum of Contemporary Art [NY], MOT [London], Lothringer 13 [Munich] and the SONAR Festival [Barcelona]. A classically trained harpsichordist, his music has been released on Matthew Herbert's Soundslike label, and in Nike and Benihana commercials. Recent projects include solo shows in London and Chicago and DJ’ing in the elevator of the Akademie der Kunste, Currently Paul is a lecturer in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College and a PhD candidate at Central St. Martins.

When the owner of the drive opens Paul B. Davis’ Untitled Bootable USB Drive an option to restart their computer pops up. When they do so, Davis’ program tells the computer it has no operating system, and instructs it to open Davis’ file. That file, which consists of the one-line command “For more information about this piece please contact Hans Ulrich Obrist at XX XXX XXXX”, is thus dubbed by Davis the computer’s “baby operating system”. Like a baby, it can’t do anything for itself, beyond sending out a single cry for help. In true art world fashion, that cry simply asks the user to contact Obrist for help. Untitled Bootable USB Drive references Obrist’s most famous 1997 exhibition, “Do It!” which consists only of instruction-based art work.