The ground where everything happens all at once for this instance is the street in which the picture enfolds. We witness the flow of traffic amongst a diverse crowd of pedestrians who themselves are in random motions of walking, drifting, gesturing, standing, loitering, looking, generally participating in the production of the everyday, such as making a living, going to and fro in search of opportunities, for entertainment or to pass time, but in essence, waiting for things to happen. Consequently, there seems to be a quasi-religious aura that haunts the paintings of Carloto, one which brings to mind Caravaggio’s baroque theatricality of the quotidian veiled in religious cover while absorbed in violent evanescent contrasts, for a miracle to happen within the constant developing drama on the street, that is, if not for the digital after-effects applied on several blurring images that embody the speed of modern life vis-à-vis the sharp focused lens capture of photorealism

This technique of digital manipulation thus allows Carloto to introduce certain elements that recur in each of the paintings, a conceptual counterpart to his technical precision, a move which puts into doubt the absolute facticity of the real. Consider the following artificial embellishments encoded within. There is the cloned image of copulating cats that have been inserted in various areas of each painting, hidden in plain sight and yet still spectacular in adding ambient noise and visceral program to the already cacophonous street theater, which categorically express “the continuous reproduction of life” according to the artist. Other encrypted signs in repeat operation are, for example: a cartoonish green blob as we usually imagine treetops to be serving here as replacement for the disappearance of trees cut solely for the purpose of widening the street for traffic; the ubiquitous smiley emoticon cum calming stress ball carried around to ease mental health during a wearing pandemic; or the punning insinuations of commercial and public signage: Phil(W)health, Capital Drug, “DuGo”, Globe D’Sister (Global Disaster), an upturned Pepsi sign (isded), and the disturbing date of 11 23 2009 impressed on the tractor’s arm pointing to the Ampatuan massacre whilst down below a severed hand is spilling outside a garbage bag.