HOMO-ECLECTIC

The collection of works in Roger Mond’s newest solo exhibition does prove to be an eclectic mix by presenting a smorgasbord of images with themes such as the post-apocalypse, piracy, artificial intelligence, robots, and horror. Confronting our existential curiosity and dread about walking into the future hand in hand with technology, he ties it all in by being contemplative of the next stage in human evolution.

Likening the process to hunting and gathering, the oldest modes of keeping alive, the paintings are a peek into the artist’s Instagram algorithm. 14 years into the creation of the platform, the content shared to us on the app becomes more targeted with its analysis of our data—that we are aware of or otherwise. Homo-Eclectic is the one who succumbs to the algorithm, the eerily comfortable heir of Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Using brainpower to filter truth from propaganda and AI slop in the feed, this imagined subspecies lives in an agonizing world almost in ruin with cults, the disrepair of infrastructure, selective emphasis and erasure of information, and floating smoke and skulls.

“Literal na kaka-kompyuter ko ‘to”, Roger says. The painting of a man with a leaky eye is supposed to be a self-portrait, a nod to experiencing fatigue from staring at his smartphone for too long. It’s a universal experience wherein we find ourselves unable to look away, no matter the sequence of the content we consume. From hilarious Pitbull memes, geopolitical violence, and conspiracy theories, to the rise of neo fascism, the algorithm slips in between chasms of audiences to present the world as we think it is from our device. Ultimately, it is up to us to find this digital fixture useful or pernicious to contemporary living.

– Sarah Conanan