"Remote_ctrl"

CEBU, Philippines - Queries into the nature of "control" serves as the nucleus of the exhibit "REMOTE_CTRL", an exhibit that features paintings by Cebu City-born visual artist Isobel Francisco, who's now based in Laguna.

Ongoing until November 19, the featured show of Qube Gallery at The Crossroads in Banilad sheds an exegetic light on society's relationship with the smartphone and social media - focusing on how the act of curating what one posts or shares in the Internet is becoming a set-in-stone norm.

With narrative tableaus rendered in vivid shades of red, blue and purple, Francisco unveils masks behind facades in this exhibit - revealing the non-manicured side behind made-up looks; the spaces that are beyond the canopy of self-conscious curation.

Essentially thought-provoking points and social commentaries, the show's featured artworks pose the question "Who is really in control?" - challenging viewers to pick out smokescreens from the sincere desire to connect; to identify how subvert, overt or ambivalently subvert and overt day-to-day interactions via mobile communications is shaping up.

To certain extent, the show's presented artworks bridge the divide between what is real with fabricated truths - dishing on how an attempt to connect with one another can turn into an alienating act; how reaching out can have the opposite effect when it is steered by a compulsion to be in control without realizing that, ultimately, no one is.