In common conversations, reality could mean perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes to what is real, “what is actual or true”; that which exists “at present.” It is a dense and complex term because it becomes an open definition, open to interpretation.

Then the world stood still with the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which created an unprecedented global crisis; and suddenly the existence of the “world that was” is replaced by a dystopian experience of people dying, critical resources stretched, immeasurable human suffering, our freedom shrinking, and life in isolation. Struggling with our physical and mental well-being, the shape of what is ending, its temporality, collapses, and the usual rules, the reality that was, no longer apply.

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine a new world. Similarly, the coronavirus pandemic opens a portal between one world and the next; and humanity, in diverse forms of expressions, tries to make sense of what keeps unfolding.

The exhibition, Reality, brings together works of MADE N.O.W. (Metrobank Art & Design Excellence Network of Winners: former winners in Painting, Sculpture, Interior Design and Architecture competitions) in a time when “reality” is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand how to live with the threat of the pandemic, and enhanced consciousness of global interconnection. It compiles a visual documentation of a period filled with uncertainty, pain, and fear, how we take comfort in the things that made us survive, and/or describe how life has changed, as well as stories of hope, solidarity, and humanity.