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“There is an element of badness in us all”

“There is an element of badness in us all”

“There is an element of badness in us all”

Ignoring the obvious snag, few acts can surely beat living fast and dying young in a blaze of posthumous infamy, for brazen coolness.

Shrugging nonchalantly in agreement? Then a) this is certainly the right side of the magazine for you, and b) you should also be pleased to know it’s a morbidly fascinating mantra now being explored by renowned street artist D*Face, whose latest exhibition, New World Disorder, uses pop art to portray ghostly anti-heroes and the rebellious legacies they leave.

And while already iconic images of James Dean and Tupac have been strikingly ‘zombified’ as part of the collection, the majority of the characters are in fact fictional – the first of which came in a reworking of Roy Lichtenstein’s In The Car. "All I saw in Lichtenstein’s painting was Death driving a blonde,” D*Face, aka Dean Stockton, tells ShortList from a London studio”, so I played on that by putting an actual Death-like figure on a motorcycle.”

Unveiled as a one-off piece at an LA show early last year, Going Nowhere Fast reaped enough attention for the artist to build a show around it - because, as the man himself puts it, “just like there is an element of badness in us all, there is also something about burning out fast in a rebellious manner that fascinates men. It’s an evil but it’s a cool evil.”

If, however, you’re of a different opinion and would rather live slowly and die in your slippers, do yourself a favour and flip this issue over. This side’s not for you.