It is no question that today’s generation isn’t too optimistic about the future. We are plagued by a number of complicated issues that deal unimaginable stress and trauma to our mental capacity. Combine that with an incompetent pack of leaders whose agendas lie in their pockets and we’re all up to the brim with anger and frustration.

Isolation has made these troubles worse. Emotional support from our peers is needed now more than ever but this pandemic has reduced our social engagements with virtual surrogates or worse, none at all. The silence for concrete solutions has made our mental struggles worse than the usual.

Isolation/The Silence is Deafening is an exhibit that aims to show the internal struggles that can be experienced in daily life made worse in quarantine. Galon and Aquino show a figurative and a literal sense of quarantine, an isolation of the mind and body from its wants and needs necessary to maintain sanity and peace of mind. Each of their pieces reflects upon the current situation at hand, yet looking introspectively at the daily struggles of people with or without the pandemic. Ultimately, both artists use their art to create a statement, to reach out, and to move against the silence.

A two-man exhibition by Burn Aquino and Irish Galon opens August 14.