Jay Cabalu 'Pin' (Limited Edition Print)
Evoking Dutch still life paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries, Pin is part of my ongoing series of floral works that reimagine this art form using contemporary products. Within this tradition is a style of painting called "vanitas," where objects symbolize the futility of materialism in the face of inevitable death. The title of this work refers both to "pinning" a location on a phone's Maps app and pinning objects of desire on Pinterest.
Jay Cabalu is a Filipino-Canadian artist based on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations– Vancouver, BC. His works are made of 100% hand-cut collage as well as other found materials. He discovered magazines and comic books at a young age after his family immigrated to Canada in 1991. As a response to mass media and capitalism, Cabalu repurposes print media to create highly meticulous collages. In subject matter ranging from pop icons, self-portrait and still life, Jay's artistic practice has evolved over the past decade as critique and correction to the failures of media's attempts to depict his everyday reality. By reappropriating the visual language of advertisements and popular culture, Jay inverts depictions of pleasure and luxury to portray a collaged world overflowing with contradictions.
