Today FYI:Flash photography

Collages and assemblages like this will be exhibited at “How Still, How Fast” at Blanc Peninsula Manila.

MANILA, Philippines - When she was just a thoughtful presence on the Internet, as the blogger behind Nothing Spaces (www.nothingspaces.com) and the popular presidents.tumblr.com, 23-year-old Carina Santos had already revealed herself as an interesting perspective on things beautiful and damned. While a lot of young artists occupy themselves with the pursuit of the bold and the ostentatious, Carina seems interested in the crevices between the spaces—the nothing spaces. Her work doesn’t scream; it whispers and soothes.

In “How Still, How Fast,” a solo exhibit opening tomorrow at the Blanc Peninsula Manila, Carina makes mixed media pieces derived from collected pictures and photographs as a historical recounting of events. We live in a world obsessed with cataloging and filing away every action, she says, perhaps as an attempt to make room for new memories, or simply just to either remember or forget.

Carina realizes the nuances of memory and meanings brought forth by images through her collages and assemblages. “How Still, How Fast,” inspired by an Adrienne Rich poem, explores the betraying nature of memory but also asserts that underneath everything, a hint of what is true remains. The possibility of these truths, no matter how small, can be enough.