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Spectre System reimagines the spectral afterlives of plantation economies in the Malay Peninsula, a region once deeply entangled in the British Empire’s pursuit of wealth. The work is guided by the presence of the Inaivu—spectral orbs whose name merges the Tamil word ninaivu and the Malay word ingatan, both meaning “memory.” These orbs drift through the terrains as agents of remembrance, carrying the weight of histories too often silenced or forgotten. The work explores how witnessing and haunting operate across colonial pasts and contemporary realities.

This tension extends in Mesh: Prelude to Spectre System, a vinyl print of elongated, contorted arms suspended in mid-motion. Reflecting the elasticity of rubber, these hands blur the boundaries between body and environment. They gesture toward the ghostly residues of labour, tracing how its impact lingers across across temporal, spatial, and material dimensions, imprinting itself onto the lived conditions of the present.