About a decade ago, Dominique White found herself in a moment of necessity and creativity. As a struggling artist, she needed more thread than she could afford. She began untwisting twisted twine, a pragmatic choice that doubled her material. This act of unpicking a two-ply length of sisal rope not only provided more thread but also revealed a texture reminiscent of hair. The slow, repetitive process became therapeutic for her, a way to switch off her brain.
This deconstructed twine, along with rusting metals, soft white kaolin clay, charcoal, raffia, cowrie shells, and driftwood, has since become a signature element in White’s sculptural practice. Her creations are massive, bearing the weight of the world yet balanced delicately, often hanging from limbs as fine as sinew. “There’s something so ghostly, almost, about the works,” she says, attributing this to her use of materials that resist solidity.
White is set to open a major solo show at Whitechapel Gallery in East London this month. Titled “Deadweight,” the exhibition features four outsized structures, the result of a six-month residency in Italy, awarded to her as the winner of the 2023 Max Mara Art Prize for Women. One of the central pieces involves a heavy piece of driftwood with iron arms weighing 15kg each, curving out two meters and threatening to split the wood wide open.
White’s work is deeply influenced by anti-colonial academics like Katherine McKittrick and Calvin Warren. McKittrick’s work on the transatlantic slave trade introduces the concept of “deadweight tonnage,” a measure of a ship’s weight, including all its cargo and people, whether recognized as persons or not. This concept shifts focus from the oppressed Black body to something more radical, a perspective that resonates with White’s focus on Black futures.
Her new pieces, standing three to four meters tall, evoke a state of decay. Creating them involved reweaving several thousand meters of rope and submerging giant metal ribs in the sea for weeks to observe the effects of saltwater on the metal. “I always want an element that’s larger than me, that I have to grapple with, like an unruly beast,” White explains. She doesn’t refer to her creations as sculptures but as entities she brings to life. “They shed, they sometimes hum, it’s almost like they’re breathing.”
Iron, furred with rust, is a recurring element in her work. Submerging it in the Mediterranean for a month, White was reminded of the historical weight of places like Genoa, the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. Her works often feature complex characters in conflict, but sometimes a minor character of great elegance emerges, created with a seemingly simple gesture.
White’s Hydra series uses the water monster of Greek mythology as a metaphor for Blackness, shipwrecked individuals, pirates, and runaway slaves. When Hercules attempts to cut off its heads, more grow in their place, depicted by harpoons in her work. “It’s a love letter to escaping and ending that battle,” she says.
The motif of the shipwreck has been central to White’s work for a decade, inspired by reports of violent migrant deaths. “When you die and neither your birth state nor your adopted home wants you, where does your soul go?” she asks. Her works serve as beacons to lost souls, questioning history, hope, and the afterlife.
Dominique White’s “Deadweight” will be on display at Whitechapel Gallery, London, until September 15. The exhibition will then travel to Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, Italy, from October 27 to February 16, 2025.
Source: The Guardian
