DOMINIQUE WHITE

A thought-provoking exploration of rebellion and transformation, Deadweight features four large-scale sculptural works which reflect the artist’s deep connection with the sea and enduring fascination with shipwrecks. Combining force and fragility, the sharp angular structures evoke material forms: anchors, a ship’s hull, the carcass of an unknown mammal, which, through White’s treatment, become symbols of defiance.

The title Deadweight derives from a nautical term which collapses everything on a ship into a single unit which determines the ship’s ability to float and function as intended. White deliberately inverts this, offering disruption as opposed to stability – a reckoning with the tipping point of the ship to offer the possibility of emancipation through abolition.

As part of the process, the sculptures were immersed in the Mediterranean Sea: both a physical and poetic gesture to explore the transformative effect of water on material objects. The resulting forms display the rust and oxidation of the metals, the fragmentation of organic elements, such as sisal, raffia and driftwood, as well as carrying the lingering scent of seawater.

Central to White’s artistic philosophy is the concept of Afro-futurism, reimagined not as traditional utopian science fiction, but as a bold envisioning of a future liberated from capitalist and colonial influence. Her work envisions an Afro-future empowered by the sea’s boundless expanse to offer fluid, rebellious realities.

Dominique White has a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths and a Foundation in Art and Design from Central Saint Martins. Recent solo exhibitions and presentations include: Destruction of Order, VEDA (Florence, Italy, 2024); Dominique White and Alberta Whittle: Sargasso Sea, ICA Philadelphia (Philadelphia, USA 2024); When Disaster Strikes..., Kunsthalle Münster (Münster, Germany 2023-4), May You Break Free and Outlive Your Enemy, La Casa Encendida (Madrid, Spain, 2023) and Statements, Art Basel (Basel, Switzerland, 2022). Recent group exhibitions include Afterimage at MAXXI; Aquila (Italy, L’Aquila, 2022-2023); Love at Bold Tendencies (London, UK, 2022); Techno Worlds at Art Quarter Budapest, commissioned by Goethe-Institut (Travelling) (2021-2025).

White was awarded the Foundwork Artist Prize of 2022 (US), has received awards from Artangel (UK), the Henry Moore Foundation (UK) in 2020 and the Roger Pailhas Prize (Art-O-Rama, FR) in conjunction with her solo presentation with VEDA in 2019. White was in residency at Sagrada Mercancía (Chile), Triangle France – Astéride (France) and La Becque (Switzerland) in 2020 and 2021.