Streetwalker

CEBU, Philippines - It's difficult to deny how the art exhibit "Streetwalker" held thematic parallels with one of Philippine cinema's celebrated masterpieces - "Maynila Sa Mga Kuko Ng Liwanag" - given how both the exhibit and the movie touches up on the controversial subject of prostitution.

As Qube Gallery's featured show for the month of February, the exhibit is not a direct reimagining of the 1975 film directed by the legendary Lino Brocka (based on a novel by Edgardo Reyes) - but its presented pieces did echo scenes that are masterfully framed in the movie; pointing to how an artist's predilection for beauty does not always tread at the skip and pace of the status quo, as well as the lengths an artist would go to document the "muse" that has captivated his creative fancies.

Bringing together a series of figurative contemporary-themed paintings by Vidal "Undo" Alcoseba," the show stemmed from the artist's immersion into the skin trade - chronicling the things that happen in these hotspots using fervent-but-disciplined brushstrokes in his telling and retelling.

Essentially a collection of narrative paintings, the show's overall presentation was not meant to shock or scandalize - but rather invited viewers to engage in invigorating prejudice-free discourse on the subject of prostitution; to question what beauty really is and why society equates beauty with truth; not realizing that by doing so, we are all branding plastic surgery as the fountain of eternal youth.

"Streetwalker" ran until March 10 in Qube Gallery at The Henry Hotel, leading audiences through the outtakes and behind-the-scene frames of the skin trade - where shadows dance as the angels of light.

Born in 1959 in Cebu City, Vidal "Undo" Alcoseba comes from a family of painters, and is one of the most prolific artists in the region. His works are defined by distinct brushstrokes and color disambiguation - lending a sense of dynamism in the arresting subjects and themes he is fond of capturing and framing and covering abstract and figurative compositions that are all-in-all fascinating and thought provoking.