“I’ve all the time been very fascinated with nautical themes however via the lens of Blackness and thru the lens of escaping,” defined artist Dominique White, winner of the ninth Version of Max Mara Artwork Prize for Ladies, in a video documenting the making strategy of Deadweight. “Deadweight got here as a realisation that there isn’t a technique of escape, solely destruction.”

This thought-provoking perception influenced by her Afrofuturist and Afro-pessimist philosophies knowledgeable the path of this art work. The consequence? A sequence of 4 large-scale sculptures displayed on the Whitechapel Gallery that was an area for White to discover Blackness and the regenerative powers of the ocean. Her imaginary world captures the fluid, rebellious spirit the ocean presents and provides her the hope for “a (Black) future that hasn’t but occurred, however should.”

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However the sea’s transformative powers had been additionally not misplaced on White. As a part of the artistic course of, the artworks had been immersed within the Mediterranean Sea, ensuing within the rusting and oxidisation of the steel buildings and fragmentation of pure components like raffia and driftwood.

Deadweight was realised throughout White’s residency, which noticed her journey Italy to work with specialists in naval and maritime historical past and the Mediterranean slave commerce, together with specialists in metalworking methods. The residency is a six-month bespoke expertise supplied to winners of the Max Mara Artwork Prize for Ladies, a collaboration between Whitechapel Gallery, Max Mara and Collezione Maramotti to help and nurture UK-based rising women-identifying artists.

Deadweight is exhibiting on the Whitechapel Gallery from 2 July 2024 to fifteen September 2024 and at Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, Italy from 27 October 2024 to 16 February 2025.

In the meantime, be taught extra concerning the making strategy of Deadweight within the documentary beneath.

This story initially appeared on Grazia.Sg

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