Cabanon:
On Becoming
Mike Kelley, Tim Rollins & K.O.S., and Raymond Pettibon
Cabanon’s first exhibition, On Becoming, brings together historic works by Mike Kelley, Raymond Pettibon, and Tim Rollins & K.O.S., all created during the Reagan and Bush Sr. years in the United States. These pieces explore the identity politics of that period, touching on themes of power, desire, and representation. Each artist presents a distinct perspective on the cultural tensions and shifting ideas around identity, gender, and sexuality in 1980s America.
This presentation features only works by male artists. This does not reflect our usual commitment to diversity and inclusion. Because this is a historical selection, we regret that we were unable to include works by female or queer artists from the same period. As our other presentations demonstrate, we remain committed to making a wide range of perspectives visible in our program.
LA-based Mike Kelley’s practice spanned photography, sculpture, painting, installation, textiles, performance, and video. Across these media, he examined themes such as sexuality, class, gender, rebellion, memory, and pop culture, always with a touch of dark humour. Kelley first created Pansy Metal/Clovered Hoof (1989) as costumes for a performance with choreographer Anita Pace, set to Motörhead. The work consists of ten oversized silk banners combining graphic and often grotesque or erotic imagery. Drawing on ritual and carnival aesthetics, Kelley challenges normative ideas of masculinity and queerness, inviting new readings of cultural symbols through a subversive and critical lens.
Raymond Pettibon emerged from the Southern California punk scene in the early 1980s with raw, comic-like drawings that paired expressive linework with unsettling, ironic, or ambiguous texts. His work critiques the hypocrisies of society, taking on themes like sex, violence, religion, and American idealism. We show an untitled 1982 drawing. The work reflects on desire and identity within a patriarchal and heteronormative culture. Combining image and text in his signature style, Pettibon exposes the emotional and psychological tension around gender roles, forbidden desire, and fractured identity.
Hailing from the East Coast, Tim Rollins founded K.O.S. (Kids of Survival) in the 1980s as a collaborative art group with his students from the South Bronx. Together, they read and discussed classic texts, then created artworks in response. This process gave young people a voice and a sense of agency through art. Pinocchio (After Carlo Collodi) (1992) reimagines the tale of the puppet who longs to become real as a metaphor for self-invention and identity. Within a broader framework of social critique, the work explores transformation, truth, and performance, offering a powerful allegory for identity as something shaped by both internal desire and external pressures.
Together, these works blend personal, cultural, and political elements to show how our identity is constantly negotiated, constructed, and challenged within the social and visual language of the times. This exhibition invites viewers to reflect on those histories and consider how questions around gender and identity continue to evolve today.
Cabanon is the opposite of our public projects: it’s a quiet, intimate event. Tucked away at the back of a garden in Brussels, a small wooden shed becomes the setting for occasional exhibitions. For each event, we choose a particular artist or theme. Cabanon can be visited by appointment only.