Sneak Preview (Installation images will post after the opening on 11/14)
the story never stops beginning or ending, 2026, digital collage from American colonial photos of the Philippines in the early 20th century (in progress)
Detail image of the digital collage printed onto fabric, which I then painted and hand sewn on top of. The exhibition room will feature eight sections of textiles treated the same way.
Encarnación Alzona, 2026, Glazed stoneware, 5 × 6 x .25”
My islands, my people (10), Glazed stoneware, 8.5 × 8.75 x .75”
Examples of decals that are digitally drawn before being fired onto ceramics. Each person is an individual from the American colonial text book “Our Islands, Their People” written at the turn of the 20th century, after the Philippines became a colony of the US.
Studio visit and preview of the exhibition with the curator Sarah Freeman.
Sneak peek of one of my new ceramic fountains that will be part of the show!
Studio image of me finishing the textiles.
Studio image of 2 of my studio assistants - Victoria and Jin.
This installation of textiles and ceramics honors Filipino women who lived when the Philippine Islands were part of the United States. It is meant to be a site of rest and reflection, paying homage to individuals whose legacies have been overlooked and connecting geographies and stories across oceans.
The concept of the installation responds to a specific monument in Vermont: two steel Krupp guns displayed on the lawn of the Statehouse in Montpelier. These guns are war relics from the Spanish-American War’s Battle of Manila Bay, which led to the U.S. buying the Philippines as a territory and owning it for the next 50 years. The guns are symbols of conquest and emblems of the machinery that expanded American power overseas.
I am interested in constructing otherworldly spaces that rearrange the histories we have been taught. The space that my installation occupies is the former ladies’ powder room of a train station that has since been transformed into the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. As a nod to the feminine, and to the idea of a private space, I have focused on women and feminine non-binary individuals from the Philippines, some of whom are named and acknowledged in various archives; others only appear as images in colonial texts.
The black-and-white imagery in the story never stops beginning or ending is sourced and collaged from photographs in American textbooks published after the Philippines became a colony of the U.S. Each of the 80 intimately sized ceramic arches depicts an individual Filipino femme who lived during American colonial rule. The number 80 refers to the number of years the Philippines has been a sovereign nation—since July 4, 1946, the same day and month as America’s Independence Day.
Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Brattleboro, Vermont. November 14, 2026 to March 6, 2027. Visit the exhibition page.