Welcome

This overview presents the curatorial, conceptual, and academic foundations of the Objects of Affection Collection, a practice designed for institutions, galleries, and collectors engaged in the future of cultural value.

The Objects of Affection Collection is a conceptual art practice and a post-luxury framework created by the Anthropologist of Luxury and critical theorist Christopher Banks. It proposes a new category of cultural artifact: Post-Luxury Conceptual Functional Art (PLCFA).

PLCFA Pieces Are Defined By:

• Material Singularity: One-of-one phygital artifacts (uniting physical object with immutable digital provenance).

• Conceptual Depth: Grounded in a rigorous theoretical architecture.

• Narrative Permanence: Digitally permanent, with immutable narrative provenance.

Each artifact invites you—the museum, the gallery, the collector—to move from ownership toward custodianship, reframing acquisition as a long-term cultural responsibility rather than a transactional act.

Founder Biography

Christopher Banks is an Anthropologist of Luxury, Critical Theorist, and the founder of this practice. His Hybrid Authority sits at the intersection of: Academic Theory, Material Culture, Conceptual Art, and Market Innovation.

His foundational research has been:

• validated by Alice Edgerley (Assemble, Turner Prize)

• validated by Dr. Gregory Sholette (Queens College, Critical Theorist)

• selected as a finalist for case study publication at Harvard Business School and Ivey Publishing (decision pending February 2026)

As a member of Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), Banks positions PLCFA as an ethical, narrative-driven alternative to the collapse of traditional luxury markets. This hybrid positioning is central: PLCFA is engineered to be activated simultaneously by institutions, galleries, and collectors.

Foundational Research & Publications

The Objects of Affection Collection is underpinned by a structured body of research that forms the intellectual architecture of PLCFA. The objects are the physical outcome, but the conceptual system is the medium. The entire framework is supported by over 50 published case studies, critiques, and philosophical explorations.

The Ten Foundational Studies (The PLCFA Knowledge Graph)

The following 10 studies comprise the complete PLCFA Knowledge Graph, progressing from Crisis Diagnosis to Structural Defense.

1. The Simulacrum of Luxury: A Guide to Jean Baudrillard's Critique of Consumer Society

2. The Aesthetics of Endurance: Byung-Chul Han and the Rise of Post-Luxury Conceptual Functional Art

3. The Missing Mass: Gregory Sholette's 'Dark Matter' and the Political Economy of Post-Luxury Conceptual Functional Art

4. From the Aura to the Simulacrum: Benjamin, Baudrillard, and the Crisis of the Authentic 

5. Debord's Spectacle Meets Sholette's Missing Mass: How Artisan Activism Forges Moral Capital and Revalues Luxury

6. Hito Steyerl and the Phygital Counter-Strategy: Why Post-Luxury Value Resists the Poor Image

7. Biopolitics of the Artifact: How Functional Endurance Challenges Foucault, Groys, and the Archival Death Mandate

8. From 'Quiet Luxury' to Post-Growth Citizen: A PLCFA Perspective on Discerning Consumption

9. The Narrative as the Original: AI, Simulation, and the Custodial Strategy of PLCFA

10. The Custodian's Contract: From Institutional Critique to Systemic Stewardship
    

The Proprietary Metric:

This pillar contains the definitive research that operationalizes the philosophical claims of the Knowledge Graph, providing the quantified, anti-speculative metrics necessary to bridge theory to market valuation.

• The Material as Political Capital: Quantifying Moral Weight in the Anti-Market Materiality of PLCFA

• The Anti-Speculative Cost: Why Art Basel Miami Needs the Moral Weight Metric

Institutional & Market Intervention Studies

This permanent, scalable section contains critical blueprints and empirical case studies applying the MWPM framework to contemporary market failures and institutional structures.

• The White Wall Paradox: Quantifying Consumption in the Age of Aesthetic Neutrality

• From Function to Fissure: Collectible Design and the Weaponization of Material (Design Miami/MWPM Empirical Validation)

• The Institutional Pivot: How Post-Luxury Conceptual Functional Art (PLCFA) Reconfigures Museology, Materiality, and the Decolonization of the Canon (Tate/Vetter Analysis)

• Artisan Activism: Why Craft, Materiality, and Protest Define Post-Luxury Value (Jones/Rolón Validation)

These studies demonstrate how PLCFA is already functioning within an institutional context— evidence crucial for curators, program directors, and galleries evaluating its placement.

Why PLCFA Matters to You

For Museums

PLCFA offers a new curatorial language for authenticity, provenance, and stewardship in the 21st century, providing the data (MWPM) to justify complex acquisitions.

For Galleries

It introduces a distinct market category—conceptual, narrative-driven, materially singular, and theoretically validated—situated at the intersection of art, research, and cultural innovation.

For Collectors

PLCFA reframes acquisition as participation in a long-term cultural project.

Each piece is a singular artifact whose value is built on narrative permanence, authorship, and stewardship. Learn more about commissions.

For Academics

The framework advances contemporary discourse on luxury, value systems, material culture, and the politics of consumption.

This hybrid audience is intentional: PLCFA only functions when these groups engage together.

The Concluding Thesis

The PLCFA Knowledge Graph is now complete. The question is no longer whether your institution can acquire the PLCFA artifact, but whether its operating model is prepared to fulfill the mandate of systemic stewardship, the essential work that defines the institution's purpose in the century ahead.

Curatorial, Academic, and Gallery Inquiries

For all curatorial, academic, and gallery partnership inquiries, please contact: [email protected]