As the expansion of archives continues toaccelerate in the digital age, artists working on photography such as MM Yu areable to explore some of the emerging concepts that are gaining significance inthe field. In her latest solo exhibition, Yu once again unveils her uniqueapproach to photography and image-archiving in general as she tackles theconcept of ‘recollection’ as an important annex to the whole activity ofcollecting and gathering images—or snapshots, to which we have all become proneto partake.

In MM Yu’s latest works, the moment of recollectingas a more deliberate act of re-contextualizing and remembering one’s thoughtsor logs of images, becomes an essential agenda against the pileup andaccumulation of personal archives. Through her constant exploration of wherephotography could go beyond photography and her use of diverse materials, MMYu, in Either/Or, addresses the contradictions found in our seeminglynever-ending documentation of images, and in expanding the idea of the archiveas shifting, cross-cultural, social realities.

Exploring different materials and forms to combinewith photography, Yu puts together a show about pictures that can be viewed asobjects. It is seen throughout her works, occupying the spaces in the gallerywhere images come in different sizes. It is a collage/collection initself—pictures printed on a variety of surfaces: wood, metal, glass, paper,television screens and fabric. For Yu, the printed image’s classification tobecome a three-dimensional object is an act of resistance against how picturesessentially render reality in flatness. ‘There is an accumulative frustrationin it,’ according to Yu, in realizing that sometimes the two-dimensional  picture fails to give justice to the uniquecircumstance from where it was taken.

In her latest work called re-collected (2025), Yugrapples with another unique circumstance the image-taker finds herself in. Shecontemplates on how the role of the photographer essentially takes on the roleof the collector. For her, there is no better way to explain this conditionthan in creating a series of portraits about people who also collect things,objects, and art. This gesture provides a whole new dynamic to the idea ofcollecting—whose collection do we recognize and who gets collected, theproducer or the acquirer of objects?

While in most of the other works, in case someonefinds them quite familiar, is because Yu re-uses her images and places them indifferent contexts and configurations. Spanning more than two decades ofpractice, MM Yu is considered as one of the most enduring and consistent toexplore photography’s concepts. With the familiar images of discards and debrisseen in the work, ‘A Few of my Favorite Things’(2009), which is  printed on silk fabric, and ‘Inventory’(2001-2025), which is an ongoing series of images of used goods andcommodities, she re-stages these images the way we rebuild ourmemories—constantly restoring, deleting, and back again at restoring. This cycleis most evident in one of her oldest works, ‘Memoirs’ (2001) which has achievedcomplete transformation in the form of lenticulars. It affirms how memory canbecome mutable, depending on the angle and position through which they areseen.

In ‘In The Belief That’ (2005-2025), thephotographs of public spaces and inner dwellings become indirect portraits ofthe people who held unwaveringly onto their beliefs, as the essence of theirexistence and possessions were laid in waste. The composition within the frameis the composition of their faith, where its articles and sacred relics arecarefully placed into their walls, plinths, and makeshift altars. This plethoraof images is testament to how Filipinos lead their lives beginning with theobjects that symbolize their undeterred spirituality and optimism.

In ‘This Image May Contain’ (2024), Yu delves onceagain into the collective consciousness to present an ubiquitous yet ‘unseen’image, one that also stands as commentary on our culture as we navigate the digitalsphere. She again collects the images—this time, the repressed images of ourmedia devices where algorithms and artificial intelligence also play a role incensorship. They have become a familiar phrase—this image may contain violence,this photo was hidden because of its content—to steer society to what isshocking or deemed inappropriate. But behind it is another overlooked agenda:to replace actual pictures with ideas. In this work, MM Yu presents thestruggle of the collected vs our collective memories.

Part of theexhibit will also feature MM Yu’s book, ‘Either/Or,’ published by Deck as aresult of her residency in Singapore. It is where the title of the show comesfrom, as MM Yu tries to look back at her career in photography that spans morethan 20 years. This is her first published book on photography. It encapsulatesall the moments—especially in taking pictures—when something can always beanother thing, depending on any situation. When something could either be thereor not there. But it is there because someone decided to collect and archive itanyway. Or it may not be there, at all: It is just a picture.

/CLJ