The Phantom Empire

The Phantom Empire is an interdisciplinary exploration of how identity is shaped through images, imagination, and visual memory. Bringing painting and cinema into dialogue, the project uses montage as both method and metaphor—assembling fragments from different times, media, and symbolic worlds into a shared present.

Rather than following a linear narrative, the work presents overlapping moments that coexist and echo one another, reflecting the way memory, fantasy, and experience are internally organised. Images are layered, interrupted, and reconfigured, mirroring how individuals construct meaning through association rather than chronology.

At the centre of the project is the figure of the Diva / Divinity, a shifting protagonist that embodies projection, performance, and self-mythology. Through this figure, the work examines how identities are imagined, rehearsed, and performed using cultural symbols and visual narratives.

The doll, and other miscellaneous objects evoke childhood play, suggesting that the imaginative processes through which identity is formed begin early and persist into adulthood. In an era saturated with images, The Phantom Empire invites reflection on how acts of looking, imagining, and remembering continue to shape who we are—revealing identity as something fluid, constructed, and continually in the making.

The exhibition will continue till Saturday, February 7, 2026 from 11:00am – 7:00pm at The Vasl Gallery