CHEERS TO THE END (2025) – 30 X 50 CM – ACRYLIC ON CANVAS
ARTWORK DESCRIPTION
In his 2025 work, “CHEERS TO THE END,” SLART appropriates a now iconic cinematic still: Leonardo DiCaprio as the malevolent plantation owner Calvin Candie in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. The image, long detached from its source material and re-circulated globally as an internet meme, is masterfully recontextualized by the artist within the historical tropes of memento mori and vanitas painting. The libation, held aloft, functions as a contemporary signifier for traditional vanitas symbols, becoming an emblem of ephemeral hedonism in the shadow of existential finitude.
Through the deliberate juxtaposition of this composed, theatrical image with the jarring immediacy of the textual intervention, “YOU’RE ALL GONNA DIE LOL,” SLART orchestrates a calculated dissonance that oscillates between the comedic and the macabre. The work actively interrogates the dialectic between high art and lowbrow cultural detritus, compelling the viewer into a confrontation with mortality, mediated through the vernacular of digital communication.
A limited edition canvas print of this work is available for acquisition.
You know that meme of Leo DiCaprio from the film Django Unchained? The one where he’s holding a drink with that proper smug look on his face? That’s the one.
Look at him. That cheeky git. He’s in on the big joke, and it’s on every single one of us.
We all run around, stressing about work, about money, about what to watch on the telly tonight… and for what? The ending’s the same for everyone, innit?
You’re all gonna die, lol.
And that ‘lol’ is the best part. It’s the perfect little shrug. It’s the giggle at the funeral that says none of this is nearly as serious as we pretend it is. So what are you gonna do about it? Mope? Nah. Might as well have a pint.
Drink up, rot later.
Reckon this would look good on your wall? Grab the canvas print here.