This Ain't No Date (Pulp Fiction) | Mark Davies

This Ain't No Date, a limited edition giclee print on paper by storytelling artist Mark Davies from arguably the greatest Tarantino film of all time, Pulp Fiction. From the 2020 'Lost In Hollywood' collection.

This is set within the iconic ‘Jack Rabbit Slims’ diner, I’ve wanted to do this kind of piece for a good while now and it was actually planned to be in the last collection, ‘Lost In Hollywood 2’ but I couldn’t find the reference image that I wanted to base it on. I was so desperate to do a ‘Pulp Fiction’ scene-based piece that I just took the decision to create the scene entirely from scratch and make my own interpretation of the diner, not an easy task!

The piece is with the concept that things didn’t quite go as planned and that’s the thing with this film, it’s absolute pure brilliance that things happen on pure chance and it’s so close to things occurring in a different way and that’s what’s played out here. They didn’t win the dance contest, that’s what Mia wanted to do, she wanted to dance, she wanted to win, and she wanted that trophy and it’s showing the brutality of the film but in a quirky way. There are so many iconic quotes within the film that sometimes you forget the extreme nature of what’s going on with the plot, the weapons and the gangster element to it.

So, it’s a scene of complete destruction that’s glossed over with the ‘bubble-gum’ feeling with the neon’s and the quirkiness of it and it’s playing on the line from Vincent Vega who described the diner as a ‘wax works with a pulse’. That’s what I’ve done here when you see Marilyn that is so lifelike but is actually a wax work and that is leaving clues to certain suggestions that things have been hidden and for you to work out.

It’s just been great to inject so many references and to finally see that piece played out as I had hoped for so long, I’ve absolutely loved it. I remember years back at College doing a project where we had to try and understand Tarantino’s mindset and way of filming and after so long (I must have been 18) to come back and do this piece and see how it has turned out in my style and my way of thinking I’m over the moon with it and loved every minute of it!