EITHER/OR ] MM Yu's sari-sari store memories are happy/sad

The artist bought all of her plastic dolls and toy bikes from Divisoria, which she used to visit a lot when she was younger.

MM Yu's new works at the Finale Art File continues her fascination for creating bold-colored montages that look either like living memoirs or blownup scrapbooks. Her works often stir nostalgia or spark an urge to rush home and make your own photowall. The effect of her new show is, of course, closer to the former, what with its wealth of plastic toys from childhood, pages from a Chinese calendar, pick-up sticks and play money. Its like a happy perya at first glance, and you remember the first time you won something you like from the sari-sari store pabunot. And then your eyes are led to those paint-covered plastic dolls, and suddenly 'playtime' has become a different game altogether.Jerome Gomez

Divi-bought toys mix with Made-in-China trinkets and pages from her childhood: torn strips from books supposed to teach her how to read Chinese, a picture of a bowl of soup (whose taste she never liked) from her mom's recipe book, and various symbols supposed to bring luck.

The works, according to the artist, say a lot about our world of mass production and over-consumption, "what we need, what we don't need, what we believe (symbols) will bring to us."

The Philippine peso has gone cute in MM's work (right). She painted the plastic coins and achieved a polka dot pattern against an MMDA pink background.