The ‘Scarface’ bag celebrates the iconic 1983 Miami movie starring Al Pacino and the beautiful Michelle Pfeiffer. The film shows us a morality tale of how Tony Montana fell as quickly as he rose; it critiques American gangsters and shows us the horrific repercussions of a criminal lifestyle, materialism and excess. In recent years, Tony Montana has been a common source of inspiration for rappers, who idolise him in popular culture. This highlights deceit and greed, and thus, artist Debra wanted to make a bag that symbolised the American dream gone wrong as a cautionary tale, where gun crime is common place and immorality and greed lead to disastrous consequences.
Shaken Not Stirred – the ugly reality of the ’80s
The sculptures in this series are a critique of the celebration and glorification of excess in a post-rationalization of 80’s culture, where public political monsters hold power in our society.
These works have captured the ugliness of greed the 20th Century, of the pre-mindfulness generation, where an excess of money, drugs, alcohol and power perverted the course of justice or legitimised it. Inspired by the cult films of Quentin Tarantino, the glorification of gangsters in ‘The Godfather’, the sexual politics of James Bond and corruption by the secret service, the greed of Wall Street’s Jordan Belfort and the total ugly excess of money in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, these are the first works in the new series by British artist Debra, who was herself studying politics & working in advertising during the ’80s, before going on to study fine art at London’s prestigious CSM post-9/11.
| Weight | 15 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 40 × 12 × 45 cm |
