Jay Cabalu

Collages mine the glittering trash of popular culture.

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I need to be clear right out of the gate: I hate most aspects of popular culture and resent being visually assaulted by an onslaught of empty, aspirational glitz culture just by walking in the urban environment. So, I’m partial to any attempt to reconfigure all this visual junk and am thrilled that Vancouver artist Jay Cabalu has done such a spectacular job of reanimating these emblems of avarice in his first solo show, Extra, on view at the On Main Gallery in Vancouver until May 28.

The big draw here is a series of collage portraits that use images physically hewn from the glittering detritus of the print media age. And by print media I don’t mean the New York Review of Books. Rather, Cabalu mines the vast and endless landfill-worthy bilge of glossy luxury and consumer magazines that persist even in the digital age. Extra is a bedazzling show in every sense. And it’s a show for the senses. So, images of Britney Spears, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and the actual Queen (Canada’s head of state, we must remember) are comprised of painstakingly and exquisitely repurposed images of watches, jewelry, brand logos and suchlike.

It’s a lot to take in and any number of essays could be written about what, exactly, any one image within these pieces actually signifies. To this day, the intent of the work of 16th-century Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo, famed for his portraits of royal figures composed of painted collage-like fruits and vegetables, is debated, while his conventional portraits are largely forgotten. Is there an implied critique? Were they just novel and fanciful assemblages toying with genre? Or were they the works of an obsessive mind? Possibly all the above.

Extra is created in a period of unparalleled excess, brutal irony and all the mortifying socio-political trends of our times, and is, necessarily, about all these things. Cabalu has clearly spent time in the trenches of celebrity trash culture, so his critique seems leavened with genuine affection for his subjects. Referring to the photo that inspired Savage Fenty (Rihanna), he says: “Wearing a Moschino Mickey Mouse combat helmet and Muto-Little bullet bra, gyrating on top of a tank, I thought this image summarized American imperialist capitalism so succinctly. This was well into the war in Iraq and Rihanna’s Rated R era, a fierce comeback after Chris Brown and the beginning of the no-fucks persona we love her for.” 

Then there is Imelda Marcos. Cabalu is Filipino and queer, so the inclusion of Marcos, wife of the former Philippine dictator, lazily referred to in the media for her obsession with designer shoes, is of particular importance. The relationship between the Marcos dictatorship and the queer community is complicated and worth exploring in relationship to the evolution of LGBTQ+ issues in the country. 

Elizabeth II is curious in that it seems to contain a male visage within. While I’m not sure of the subsumed identity – or even if there actually is one – a closer inspection reveals the work is made up, in part, of images of actresses who’ve portrayed British monarchs in film and TV: Tilda Swinton, Clare Foy and Helen Mirren, among others I probably don’t recognize. But thinking of Swinton’s inclusion has me leaning towards a subtle and fluid gender tilt.

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Jay Cabalu, “Storming the Capitol,” 2021-2022, hand-cut collage on panel, 24” x 96” (courtesy the artist)

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Jay Cabalu, “Storming the Capitol (detail),” 2021-2022, hand-cut collage on panel, 24” x 96” (courtesy the artist)

Storming the Capitol is a little looser. A sprawling horizontal piece that’s more of a typical Pop Art collage critique, it depicts the lowest-ebb moment thus far in the ongoing American descent into a Looney Tunes dunce autocracy. A closer look shows figures from The Handmaid’s Tale roaming among American superheroes, various gay icons, Big Bird, Michael Jackson and Bill Maher, as well as Betty and Veronica (from the Archie comics) in Old Glory bathing suits.

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Jay Cabalu, “Flaming Chandelier,” 2020, hand-cut collage on panel, 54” x 45” (courtesy the artist)

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Jay Cabalu, “Flaming Chandelier (detail),” 2020, hand-cut collage on panel, 54” x 45” (courtesy the artist)

A standout for me is Flaming Chandelier, which, in light of the friction generated by Rodney Graham’s Spinning Chandelier, resonates as an emblem for the conflicted relationship between artists and elites. Watches, jewelry and car company logos swirl together in the form of a chandelier, all of it heaved skyward, or perhaps, swung down from space by a stylized blue jay with wings made from Ford logos. The whole thing is alive with golds, blues and pinks juxtaposed against a night sky, all of it framed with magazine spines and construction screws, an added layer of craftsmanship that pins down its glittering surface. It’s magnificent! 

Regardless of the meticulously placed Easter eggs, the hidden references and inside jokes within each work, the show is simply a joy, allowing the guilty pleasure of revelling in the alchemy of consumer capitalism’s detritus. For me, Cabalu’s work also reduces the insidious impact of these kinds of images in my daily travels. The logos, the ads and the images of bling junk will seem smaller and sadder, like fake jewels pried from their once-glorious setting in Cabalu’s collages. ■

Jay Cabalu, Extra, at the On Main Gallery in Vancouver from May 7 to May 28, 2022.

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