9th edition, 2022–2024, Dominique White

A [Black] future that hasn’t yet happened, but must.
Tina Campt

For the ninth edition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, winning artist Dominique White (b. 1993) explored the idea of rebellion and transformation. The four large-scale sculptures in the project pursue the artist’s interest in creating new worlds around the concept of Blackness, and her fascination with the metaphorical and regenerative power of the sea.

Deadweight, White’s winning project for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, draws inspiration from the symbolism and transformative power of the sea. Her artworks explore the tension between spectral fragility and a ponderous physical presence, often incorporating abandoned marine artefacts such as sails, masts, driftwood and weather-worn rope, as well as materials like untreated iron and clay.

The winning proposal that White presented for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women rethinks the maritime concept of “deadweight”, traditionally associated with the stability of a ship, to explore the possibilities of rupture and liberation.

During the residency organized by Collezione Maramotti, White travelled to Agnone, Palermo, Genoa, Milan and Todi, to explore the meaning and use of “deadweight”, its past role in the slave trade, and the future forms it could take on. Through research in a series of archives and with the aid of experts, White learned about artisanal processes and historical narratives that informed the development of her project.

In Agnone, in the region of Molise, White studied bronze casting techniques. She took part in a week-long workshop at Pontificia Fonderia di Campane Marinelli, a family-run foundry that has been in operation for over a thousand years.

In Palermo, White met with Giovanna Fiume, professor of modern history at the University of Palermo, for private lessons and tours of symbolic landmarks around the city tied to the theme of the Mediterranean slave trade, from both a historical and contemporary standpoint.

In Genoa, the artist visited some of the country’s most important naval and archaeological museums and archives. With the guidance of Massimo Corradi and Claudia Tacchella, scholars specialized in the science and history of shipbuilding, she investigated construction methods and naval terminology closely linked to the cycle of human existence: birth, life and death.

Deadweight 


Whitechapel Gallery (2 July – 15 September 2024)

Collezione Maramotti (27 October 2024 – 16 February 2025)

Deadweight is a project made up of four new sculptural works that wed power to delicacy. Forged out of rusty iron and organic materials such as sisal, raffia, driftwood and white clay, they summon up images of anchors, ships’ hulls, skeletons of the sea. These ethereal works envision an Afro future located outside of traditional utopian science fiction, in an oceanic realm with the potential to offer fluid, rebellious realities, liberated from capitalist and colonial influence.

One significant new element in the project was the immersion of these sculptures in the Mediterranean: a poetic act that explores the permanent transformative effect of the sea on the material objects.

The new commission weaves together concepts of Black subjectivity, Afro-pessimism and bottom-up Hydrarchy, disrupting the conventional dynamics of acquiring power over land through the sea. White reconceptualizes the notion of “shipwreck(ed)” both as a reflective act and a state of being, interrogating entrenched power structures and evoking narratives of rebellion and emancipation.

In 2022 White was the recipient of the Foundwork Artist Prize, which recognizes and supports the practice of contemporary artists.