Dominique White

Untitled

2020, sisal, kaolin clay, raffia, wood, iron, sail, cowrie shells. Underdog Collection

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Untitled is a fragile and precarious sculpture that calls to mind tools used in fishing. Nets and hooks here become an installation mixed with natural materials such as kaolin, clay and shells. Dominique White manipulates nautical tools and natural materials by calibrating weights and tensions to create precarious and delicate balances. The conceptual background of her works lies in the history of slavery and the African diaspora caused by the triangular trade that made Europe rich and enslaved millions of Africans. White also draws on the concept of hydrarchy and Afrofuturism (a current of thought born in music that explores the intersections of the African diaspora and technology) to denounce the close interconnection of colonialism, racism and capitalist accumulation of wealth. Her works are ghostly apparitions of stories of oppression and violence that denounce how the legacy of such trades is still present in the form of discrimination, poverty and inequality also in Europe.

Dominique White (1993, London, UK) lives between Marseille and Essex and she often works nomadically. Recent solo exhibitions and presentations include: Statements, ArtBasel (Basel, Switzerland, 2022); The Cinders of the Wreck, Triangle (Ast.rides, Marseille, France, 2022); Hydra Decapita, VEDA (Florence, Italy, 2021-2022); and Blackness in Democracy’s Graveyard, UKS (Oslo, Norway, 2021). Recent group exhibitions include: Afterimage at MAXXI L’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 Roger Pailhas Prize (Art-O-Rama, France) in 2019 in conjunction with her solo presentation with VEDA and has received awards from Artangel (UK) and the Henry Moore Foundation (UK) in 2020. White was in residency at Sagrada Mercanc.a (Chile), Triangle France – Ast.rides (France) and La Becque (Switzerland) in 2020 and 2021.