Debra Franses Bean

Debra Franses Bean is a graduate of the Central Saint Martins art school in London. Her studio is as transparent as her work, with large glass windows that echo the exposed contents of her artbag sculptures. Only the glass studio's contents are continually in flux, unlike her Artbags which are frozen moments of consumption. A series of identical, crystal - clear handbag sculptures contain a plethora of desirable objects - often the kind whose appeal is short-lived. Instead, Debra Franses Bean mummifies her objects in a chic resin coffin, they are satisfying in a way that the actual experience of consumption can never be by prolonging the moment, held forever in time

The Artbags of Debra Franses Bean contain wads of cash, slick handguns, designer lipstick tubes, lollypops and all manner of objects denoting both high and low levels of comfort, prestige and style. They take their cue from kitschy elements of popular culture, referencing both pop art and postmodernism's endeavours to embody these ideals. The relentless repetition of this as a form and concept is replete with notions of the mass manufactured products that contribute to society's increasingly cluttered landscape of stuff.