Jay Cabalu 'Dorothy'
As the emotional centerpiece of Bunso, this portrait of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz (1939) illustrates the fear incited by capitalism to ensure our dependence on it. Fear of death, aging, and ownership fuels an endless cycle of competition and dominance that ultimately destroys civilizations and our planet. The reference to Oz mirrors the exterior beauty and saturation of consumer culture while also hinting at its grim underbelly.
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.