For the lack of power and fear of being misunderstood, mankind created the constitution of “reasonable judgment”— a body where one word only means one thing, like “truth” is good and “wrong” is bad.

Arlo Jake Lagmay, a Basel-based Filipino artist, challenges the dysfunctional wordplays by painting their multiple denotative and connotative meanings. Through mixing colours spontaneously selected based on the current mood and careless expressive brushstrokes, the artist convinces that merging opposites blurs the difference between themselves, thus creating the reality of life— a juxtaposition of contradictions.

To mirror humanity and broadcast honesty has always been the artist’s intention. His collections revolve in breaking the social construct by emphasizing the viewer’s innate power emanating from his or her points-of-view. It is the crossroad where everything starts bending left or right— where truth can be wrong and a lie can be good.