Deadweight is a new body of work by the artist Dominique White, winner of the 2022–24 Max Mara Art Prize for Women. Presented at Whitechapel Gallery and Collezione Maramotti, Deadweight comprises four large-scale sculptural works that reimagine the maritime concept of ‘deadweight tonnage’, inverting its association with stability to explore themes of disruption and liberation.
The publication’s cover features a light-weight, sans-serif typeface. The fluid typographic layout references Deadweight’s sculptural forms – reminiscent of an anchor, a ship’s hull, or a mammal’s carcass – creating an unexpected dissonance to the inherent heaviness of the title.
A narrative of displacement and disruption runs through the book’s inside pages, reflected in particular layout details: numbers and footnotes are rotated vertically and installation shots sit opposite blank pages. Reference texts which inform the artist’s practice weave throughout this narrative, distinguished by an alternative layout.
Photography: Ed Park
