Dominique White begins her six-month artistic residency in Italy Max Mara Art Prize for Women 2022-2024
Agnone and Palermo: May – June 2023
Genoa: June – July 2023
Milan: July – August 2023
Todi: August – October 2023
Dominique White (b. 1993. UK), winner of the ninth edition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women (2022-2024), has begun her bespoke six-month residency in Italy, organised by Collezione Maramotti. The prize, a longstanding initiative and collaboration between Max Mara, Whitechapel Gallery and Collezione Maramotti, is set up to support and nurture women-identifying artists at a crucial stage in their career who have not previously had a major solo exhibition.
White is interested in creating new worlds for ‘Blackness’ and fascinated by the metaphoric potency and regenerative power of the sea. Her practice weaves together theories of Black Subjectivity, Afro-pessimism and Hydrarchy, manifesting ghostly, seemingly fragile, yet highly physical works which often employ discarded nautical relics and materials such as clay and untreated iron. White’s sculptures, or ‘beacons’, recall sea-bound, imagined worlds which prophesise the emergence of the Stateless: “a [Black] future that hasn’t yet happened, but must.”
White’s residency has been tailored to support, inform and develop her winning proposal, and will see the artist spend six months in specific locations in Italy including Agnone, Palermo, Genoa, Milan and Todi as part of the process of creating a new body of work entitled Deadweight. The work takes as its starting point the measure of ‘deadweight tonnage’, an official term used in the maritime industry that calculates how many units of weight a ship can take before it sinks. Over the course of the residency, White will explore and interrogate the meaning and exploitation of ‘deadweight’ tonnage, its relevance to the historical slave trade and its contemporary forms in the Mediterranean.
Over the next six months, White will explore a range of archival resources, meet with a series of experts in order to learn new narratives and new historical perspectives, and pursue and deepen her knowledge of the production processes, skills and techniques required to develop the work.
White starts the residency in Agnone, in the Molise region, with a one-week workshop at Pontificia Fonderia di Campane Marinelli, one of the oldest bell foundries in the world, where manufacturers employ the same techniques and materials that have been used since the Middle Ages.
White will then travel to Palermo where she will connect with Giovanna Fiume, Former Professor of Modern History at the University of Palermo, whose research has been fundamental to the subject of the history of slavery in the Mediterranean. Through dedicated one-to-one lessons and visits to critical sites in and around Palermo, White will deepen her understanding of the historical and contemporary slave trade in the Mediterranean. Visits will include Monte Pellegrino, an important reference point for sailors, and Santa Maria di Gesù, which holds the grave of San Benedetto il Moro (1526-89), one of the patron saints of Palermo who was the son of African slaves but freed at birth. White will be hosted at 18th-century Palazzo Butera during her stay in Palermo. Home to the Valsecchi art collection, Palazzo Butera will provide a base for her to connect and engage with the city’s rich artistic scene.
In Genoa, White will research naval history, archives and construction, supported in her research by tutors from the University of Genoa, Professors Claudia Tacchella and Massimo Corradi, specialising in construction science and its history. White will visit naval and archaeological museums located in Genoa, Imperia, La Spezia and Camogli as well as the Archivio Ansaldo, which holds a vast archive of materials related to Italian maritime and general industries.
During her time in Milan, White will undertake a workshop at Fonderia Artistica Battaglia with a dedicated tutor to master the technique of lost-wax casting, which has been used for centuries in the creation of handmade bronze artefacts. She will also have the opportunity to visit the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, the largest science and technology museum in Italy, which has in its collection the Enrico Toti submarine, the first submarine built in Italy after WWII.
Ending the residency in the Umbria region, in Todi, White will spend two months developing and experimenting with her metalworking practice, visiting local foundries and metalworking companies. She will be supported by the artist Michele Ciribifera, who was assistant to sculptor Beverly Pepper (1922 – 2020) for 30 years, whose primary material was metal. In Todi, White will have a studio where she will learn new techniques and approaches to the new body of work for the final project, assisted by Ciribifera.
White’s new body of work will form the basis of a solo exhibition in 2024, launching at Whitechapel Gallery and touring to Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy.