Filipino-Chinese artist MM Yu never felt like she fitted in. Born in 1978 in Manila, she straddled two cultures, speaking Tagalog and Hokkien and balancing the religious divide: her father was Buddhist, her mother Protestant.
“Growing up, I just wanted to blend in but was mocked by neighbourhood kids for having slit eyes,” she says. “Among my cousins I was the only one who didn’t go to a Chinese school […] I was always the odd one out.
To help cope with the name-calling, Yu escaped into her camera, obsessively taking photos of everyday objects. She continues today, finding beauty in the chaotic surroundings of her home city.
Painting is also a passion – she graduated from the University of the Philippines with a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting in 2001, and was a student of the late Roberto Chabet, widely regarded as the founding figure of Philippine conceptual art.
While she toyed with the idea of becoming a photojournalist, her focus was contemporary art rather than editorial work.
Now she is holding her first solo exhibition in Hong Kong. Called “Tracings”, it will take place at Lumenvisum, in the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, Shek Kip Mei, until April 28.
For the exhibition, Yu has reinterpreted images created since 1997 as a way to better understand her “Chineseness”. One part of the exhibition explores her personal and family life, including images of her grandmother’s house and its belongings, as a way of preserving memories.
Part two examines the impact that discarded, cheap, China-made goods are having on the Philippines’ environment. This is best seen in A Few of My Favourite Things (2010) and Inventory (2003-ongoing), two works that make depressing statements about overconsumption and overproduction.
Yu prefers not to use her real name. “MM is a nickname my mum gave me after the M&M candy and the abbreviation for Metro Manila,” she says.
While in Hong Kong for the show’s launch, she plans to take a lot of pictures. “I want to take a lot of photos and develop it into a series.”
“Photography in Southeast Asia V: MM Yu – Tracings”, Lumenvisum, L2-02, JCCAC, 30 Pak Tin Street, Shek Kip Mei, Kowloon. Tuesday to Sunday, 11am-1pm, 2pm-6pm. Closed on Mondays (except public holidays)