This tree is beautiful in its brief existence. Though it will soon be eaten by termites, the motifs carved into it hold our voices—each one an exhibition entry, marking presence before disappearance.

Termites do not announce their presence. They enter quietly, settle within structures, and start consuming from within slowly, persistently, invisibly.

Empire Within brings together works that render visible the enduring traces of coloniality embedded in everyday life. These shadows linger in language, memory, bodies, and systems, often unnoticed, yet profoundly shaping how we see ourselves and the world around us.

What has been lost, and what remains? What fractures surface when these internalized histories are met with friction, resistance, and refusal?  Engage in a raw and unsettling reckoning with colonial inheritance, exposing both its violence and its persistence.

From the debris of imposed narratives emerge possibilities of becoming, of reconfiguring hybrid identities beyond colonial frameworks, toward self-defined futures. In confronting what has consumed us from within, Empire Within gestures toward acts of reimagining, reclamation, and renewal.

Click on the following motifs to view the artifacts.