Glam Garbage, Collage and Existence: A Quick Chat with Kaila Bhullar
Kaila Bhullar is an interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, currently studying visual art and psychology at Simon Fraser University. In their artistic practice, Kaila uses digital editing, photography, film, performance and mixed media art to critically engage with cultural and philosophical themes such as polarization and the nature of existence. We met online to chat about Kaila’s cats, musical inspirations and creative process.
Quinn Lumsden: Your cats, Bowie and Floyd, are both named after musical artists. Do you derive a lot of inspiration from music?
Kaila Bhullar: Yes. When I was younger, I was more interested in performing arts. I wanted to go onto Broadway or be in a band. Every artistic medium has its strengths and weaknesses, but I feel that music has a unifying, expressive quality that is easy to connect with, so it’s always been a very strong inspiration to me.
QL: Do you explore sound and music in your own practice?
KB: I do a bit, in an abstract way. I lean towards anything audiovisual in my own practice. I try to experiment with it. I don’t know if I would necessarily call the things that I make music per se, they're kind of like sound collages. I have no musical talents, but I do own a guitar.
QL: Owning a guitar is a good step.
QL: How would you describe your art?
KB: It’s kind of like if you set a dumpster on fire and then threw some glitter on it (laughter).
QL: So stinky, but sparkly?
KB: Exactly. Little pieces of stuff nobody wanted but also still glam.
QL: Some of your art looks like digital collages, often with repeated images.
KB: I would also classify a lot of the stuff I do as collages, digital or not. I find that Photoshop as a tool is underrated, since it can be used in so many different ways. You can start in Photoshop with a blank canvas and create anything. It is similar to painting, but instead of a brush and paint you have a mouse and a tool to distort pixels. I guess the repeated images are more of an aesthetic choice for me. Oftentimes, I will start with a base image that I’ve taken myself. I’ll really look at that single photo and see what I can alter to make it something completely different, and then from there it grows.
QL: Cool, you let it become what it becomes.
KB: Yeah, in the end I just take a look at it and if I like it, I like it.
QL: What sort of themes do you like to explore in your art?
KB: I think the biggest one is existence. I feel the greatest topics to help you understand yourself and the world around you is in the nature of your existence. So, I use art as a tool to explore that. I also like political art. I am concerned about polarization; I think it’s one of the things contributing to a more chaotic society. I wouldn't say my art is political, but I would like to experiment with that in the future. Overall, my goal isn’t to enforce my opinion on people, just to present something that makes people think about a subject. Also, I hate artist statements. I hate saying "this is what my art is about."
QL: I don’t love artist statements either, do you think that art shouldn't be explained by the artist?
KB: I think that one of the beautiful things about art is its ambiguity and how it's open to interpretation. Even if a person looking at an artwork isn't taking away what the artist was intending, I prefer that over "this is what I think, and this is what you should think also."
QL: Do you take that into consideration in your practice, ambiguity?
KB: I would say so, I definitely prefer to make things abstract. There’s something about abstraction that I find comforting, that it can kind of be anything - the openness.
QL: That’s wonderful. We’re past our word limit, any advice to your younger self?
KB: Just love yourself.
Thank you, Kaila, for your time and some insight into how you see the world. It’s been a pleasure working alongside you in school and I’m looking forward to seeing what you do in the future.
To see more of Kaila:
https://yellowkai.myportfolio.com/home
@yelllo.www (instagram)
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