SPECTRALS

Colonization is a ghostly process. It transforms native people and cultures into lingering shadows that continue to haunt the descendants of both colonizers and the colonized. This project, which combines found tapestry kits of Western landscapes and European motifs merged with Philippine imagery, explores the unique power of these figures and deepens our understanding of the postcolonial experience.

Living within the tension of two cultures, shaped by a history that cannot be forgotten, many colonized people exist in the periphery between past and present, life and death, visibility and invisibility, self and other. This 'in-between' space resists simple categories and fixed identities. Two recurring figures emerge: the native, who seeks recognition and justice by recalling erased cultures; and the colonizer’s ghost, embodying the guilt and moral burden of a violent history.

To examine these ideas, I worked with found tapestries, mass-produced embroidery kits popular in the early 20th century that I gathered for several months. These kits often depicted romanticized European countrysides or idyllic American scenes; images designed to be stitched in domestic spaces, reinforcing cultural aspirations tied to empire, nationalism, and class. By collecting and reworking these embroidered landscapes, I interrupt their narratives, layering them with fragments of Philippine landscapes, silhouettes of indigenous and native Filipinos and obscured precolonial objects. In doing so, I draw attention to how these seemingly decorative domestic crafts also carry histories of cultural dominance and erasure. The work brings together a haunted surface where colonial and native histories overlap.

These ghostly figures reveal how colonization continues to shape the present. They remind us that the past never disappears but lives on through memory, identity, and struggle. Through them, we can reflect on recognition, justice, and the ongoing process of healing in a world still marked by colonial shadows.

IG: @dianewilliamsartist

*Images courtesy of Official Welcome, Los Angeles. Photo: Evan Bedford