Extended Analysis
The act of breaking free, by definition, signifies that the struggle to escape an undesirable situation has been successful. A courageous yet controversial disentanglement sees the shackles burst open as Dominique White’s installation reverberates in La Casa Encendida. The exhibition vibrates from a brutal disturbance; a scene of recent battle triumphed by the underdog. To break free demonstrates perilous gallantry fueled by the desire for deep rooted change. This uprooting is often ugly. Disorder and resistance is a systematic shock not all wish to see. However, upon entering room A in La Casa Encendida, one instantly becomes a witness 1.
1. Encendida, La Casa. “Dominique White. May You Break Free and Outlive Your Enemy.” Home. Accessed March 24, 2023. https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/exhibitions/dominique-white-may-you-break-free-and-outlive-your-enemy-14372.
The airy hum of a space that has felt pain sets the stage for May you break free and outlive your enemy. The dimly lit room creates a striking contrast to the tactile discomfort of the fibrous ivory entanglements suspended from the ceiling. The powder coated textile bundles resemble weeping carcases, like cobwebs lurking dormant as they simultaneously gather dust and deteriorate into nothing. Kaolin clay bursts onto the floor, a powdery detonation that can be traced back to each tendril coated in the mineral. Exuding onto the grey gallery floor, it leaves behind a mess that could have been made into something. Yet it remains unchanged, unremoved; a problem left unresolved lingering illuminated under the spotlights. Kaolin is a highly versatile material, a soft white clay that is an essential ingredient in the production of china and porcelain. When compounded, Kaolin can be applied onto the face as a cosmetic agent that can lighten skin tone. This choice of material brings to attention an internalisation of racial significance; why would one want to make their skin appear lighter? It can be asserted that Dominique White’s use of Kaolin clay points toward the idea of Black Subjectivity and race related stresses in a white world. ‘Although discrimination is the most studied aspect of racism, racism can also affect mental health through structural/institutional mechanisms and racism that is deeply embedded in the larger culture.’2 The material itself evokes a sense of fragility – a characteristic that is an indication of one’s mental and physical health. Kaolin clay, once transformed into its final form becomes something more solidified, yet hardened clay is breakable and less durable than its powder form. May you break free and outlive your enemy explores the idea of resilience as a form of healing, a form of resistance, a form of endurance.3 White’s considered use of kaolin in its untransformed state appears to be a strategy of self defence and self preservation. If something is fragile, it can be broken. If it remains unmade it can not be broken. The exhibition intends to reposition fragility within the positive connotations of resilience. For fragility here connotes convalescence and recovery as a form of empowerment emerging from the hardships relating to trauma and vulnerability. The curatorial statement for the exhibition puts this sentiment into writing. It is the state of permanent emergency that proliferates in global societies today, ‘The deepening climate crisis, social, economic and, finally, territorial insecurities’ 4 that require resilience to be the knee jerk reaction of those who are acutely affected by the neoliberal regime. One which entraps people in the most vulnerable crevasses of society. ‘The poor, the non-normative or the colonised people are expected to be resilient to (the) unjust conditions instead of fixing those circumstances in the first place.’5 White reclaims the assimilation that appropriates the very concept of resilience frontiered by the neoliberal agenda. Through the insinuated violence that White’s installation presents, the work of philosopher Mark Neocleous becomes legible as the concept of resilience within the context of UK and US army strategies. His research reveals the extent to which resilience is subsuming and surpassing the logic of security.6 To perform and respond in a resilient way, according to a document issued by the National Strategy for Homeland Security (2007) means to disrupt the enemy’s plans and diminish the impact of future disasters.7 Arguably, White has reclaimed resilience by repositioning the word in her favour, in doing so the idea of resilience, akin to that of victim blaming, has been reversed. The idea of resilience as a collective quality has, over many decades, mutated into a personality trait required for specific groups of people in order to survive. An evolutionary form of a not so natural selection. For it puts ecological, political and financial responsibility on individuals, leaving them to deal with the systematic shocks that beat them down into submission. Such dysfunctional systems require reconstruction yet they remain unrepaired. Pakui Hardware, the curatorial duo behind ‘Reclaiming resilience’ lays out a manifesto of sorts in the exhibition statement. “Together we’ll be looking for ways to nurture resilience as an empowering, communal effort, rather than a personalised labour of survival that is placed on the shoulders of individuals today.”8 Reclaiming resilience will unravel as a four part exhibition programme running from January 26th 2023, until early January 2024. Dominique White was invited to reclaim and redefine the word resilience as her work marks the first showcase as part of the annual curatorial project at La Casa Encendida; a dynamic social and cultural arts space in Madrid that continues to adapt to global changes.9 La Casa Encendida – its literal translation to english meaning ‘The Lit House’ is one full of arts and culture.
2. David R. Williams, “Stress and the Mental Health of Populations of Color: Advancing Our Understanding of Race-Related Stressors,” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 59, no. 4 (2018): pp. 466-485, https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146518814251.
3. Encendida, La Casa. “Reclaiming Resilience.” Home. Accessed March 24, 2023. https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/exhibitions/reclaiming-resilience-14268.
4. Encendida, La Casa. “Reclaiming Resilience.” Home. Accessed March 24, 2023. https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/exhibitions/reclaiming-resilience-14268.
5.Encendida, La Casa. “Reclaiming Resilience.” Home. Accessed March 24, 2023. https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/exhibitions/reclaiming-resilience-14268.
6. Neocleous, Mark. “Mark Neocleous · Resisting Resilience (2013).” Radical Philosophy, February 1, 2018. https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/commentary/resisting-resilience.
7.US National Security Council, National Strategy for Homeland Security, Washington DC, October 2007, pp. i, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 42, 47.
8.Encendida, La Casa. “Reclaiming Resilience.” Home. Accessed March 24, 2023. https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/exhibitions/reclaiming-resilience-14268.
9. Encendida, La Casa. “What Is La Casa?” Home. Accessed March 23, 2023. https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/what-casa.
Estate One, a company that offers innovative and personalised renovations of real estate claims to have recovered this space which had fallen into disuse.10 The building was completed in 1913 and was originally a pawn shop; a location that could offer financial relief through the exchange of valuable items for money. In this respect La Casa Encendida as a building performs a sort of regenerative capability. To anticipate and engage with the challenges of new social and cultural needs.11 The building itself displayed resilience insofar as a social and economical crisis is concerned. Its transformation was required in order to succeed. La Casa Encendida is managed by Fundación Montemadrid, ‘an independent non-profit entity that works to improve the lives of citizens through social, educational, cultural and environmental projects.’12
10. One, Estate. “La Casa Encendida, a House Full of Art and Culture.” Blog, dulce blog, February 29, 2016. https://www.estateone.biz/blog/la-casa-encendida-house-full-art-culture/?lang=en.
11.Encendida, La Casa. “What Is La Casa?” Home. Accessed March 23, 2023. https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/what-casa.
12. “Fundación Montemadrid,” Fundación Montemadrid, accessed March 25, 2023, https://www.fundacionmontemadrid.es/.
La Casa Encendida, Culture Centre, Madrid, Spain, 2023.
White’s installation challenges the dysfunctional systems that have long been eroding the capacious spirit and livelihood of diasporic and colonised people. ‘From the beginning of the English colonial expansion in the early seventeenth century through the metropolitan industrialization of the early nineteenth century, rulers referred to the Hercules-Hydra myth to describe the difficulty of imposing order on growing global systems of labour.’13 In chaos, White has turned the Greek myth of Lernaean Hydra on its head – the main point of reference for May you break free and outlive your enemy. White utilises the essence of contemporary installation through a traditional sculpture setting; a darkened room with obvious focal points commanded by light placement and staging. In this way, what the artist intends to be seen is made explicit. May you break free and outlive your enemy is an example of how contemporary ‘in situ’ installations remain, intentionally or not, constrained to traditional sculpture settings; compositionally conforming to how art should be presented. The artist’s message is only granted to be communicated through its medium – its assertive whisper is silenced by a spiritless and reserved room. It is an ironic equilibrium where opposing forces of power are delivered within a dynamic use/misuse of space.
13. Encendida, La Casa. “Dominique White. May You Break Free and Outlive Your Enemy.” Home. Accessed March 24, 2023. https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/exhibitions/dominique-white-may-you-break-free-and-outlive-your-enemy-14372.
Dominique White, ‘May you break free and outlive your enemy’, 2021, mahogany, cast iron, forged iron, sisal, kaolin clay, nul sails. Shown at La Casa Encendida, 2023.
The Greek myth of the Hydra Lernaia tells the tale of the eventual defeat of the gigantic water serpent by Heracles. Heracles is said to have been sent to destroy the beast that lurked in the swamps of Lerna. The battle was not won easily, as with each decapitation of the Hydra’s nine heads, two more respawned. In order to prevent this beastly regeneration, Heracles cauterised the wounds he inflicted by applying burning brands to the reappearing heads. This tale of a heroic defeat and the prevention of the Hydra’s regeneration leaves the severed stumps amongst the stars that make up the constellation Hydra. It can be noted that the composition of May you break free and outlive your enemy does resemble that of the constellation’s diagram. For the tips of each hook create focal points, much like how stars rest within the negative space of the sky. Once these pinpoints have been asserted, the gaze is led away from these angles and into organic shapes as the torn sails droop into formation.
Dominique White, ‘May you break free and outlive your enemy’, 2021, mahogany, cast iron, forged iron, sisal, kaolin clay, nul sails. Shown at La Casa Encendida, 2023.
White’s installation delivers an emergence, akin to the very notion of the Hydras regenerative heads. The central structure of the installation resembles a fall from grace. Turned upside down and inside out, the slashed sails stretch and enfold, recoiling from violence within this now motionless scene. The nul sails tremble into a defensive cocoon, hoisted by the menacing hook’s incisions and suspended by robust sisal rope. The explosion of material has already happened, and so suspense is literally suspended. Shrouded in sharpness these sails will not rise again, instead the stringy sinew, with its enemies pulling from all angles, has been disciplined and punished into conformity. Four cast iron instruments, similar to those that hold up the central structure, lay resting at three separate locations, surrounding the main feature with an air of dormant cruelty, poised with violent withdrawal.
Dominique White, ‘May you break free and outlive your enemy’, 2021, mahogany, cast iron, forged iron, sisal, kaolin clay, nul sails. Shown at La Casa Encendida, 2023.
Dominique White, ‘May you break free and outlive your enemy’, 2021, mahogany, cast iron, forged iron, sisal, kaolin clay, nul sails. Shown at La Casa Encendida, 2023.
Dominique White, ‘May you break free and outlive your enemy’, 2021, mahogany, cast iron, forged iron, sisal, kaolin clay, nul sails. Shown at La Casa Encendida, 2023.
Tipped with forged iron, their rusty appearance ossifies around the pewter coloured instruments. These spears resemble the burning brands that seared off the severed heads of the Hydra, meaning it could not spring forth another. However, the sparse composition places five hooks in suspension and four at the three separate locations in the room. The Greek myth states that the Hydra originally had nine heads. Thus, the various active and dormant hooks that dominate the room’s compositional formation could be interpreted as reincarnations of the Hydra’s head, rather than the weapons that were used to destroy it. It becomes clear that White has intended to invert the power dynamics in the myth. By doing this she proposes the other – as the form of the spears, while the dominant power becomes the monster whose functionality has been ripped apart. From this ancient myth to a contemporary certainty, it has been proven that when kaolin clay is applied to wounds it speeds up blood clotting.14 In this way, White’s choice of material becomes paramount in understanding how she has reversed the power dynamics of the myth, and in doing so the reclamation of the word resilience. ‘The many-headed hydra was seen as a symbol of disorder and resistance, a threat to the building of state and capitalism’15 In May you break free and outlive your enemy, White inverts this logic: the state becomes the many-headed monster and blackness its death giver, cutting off channels of its poisonous power.16 Kaolin is reported to be effective in controlling haemorrhage when combined with standard gauze and applied to wounds.17 The dried up, draping cascade appears to imitate the process of healing, doctored by White’s use of kaolin. It is an amalgamation of the intrinsic clotting and shredding of flesh that resembles the appearance of gauze repairing an open wound. The installation materialises this healing process. Manifesting an affliction of pain in order to encourage recovery. Kaolin is left as the reparative debris, splattered around the focal point in the room. Much like how blood stains would clumsily drench a murderous scene.
14.“Kaolin: Overview, Uses, Side Effects, Precautions, Interactions, Dosing and Reviews,” WebMD (WebMD), accessed March 25, 2023, https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-44/kaolin#:~:text=Kaolin%20is%20used%20to%20stop,support%20most%20of%20these%20uses.
15.Encendida, La Casa. “Dominique White. May You Break Free and Outlive Your Enemy.” Home. Accessed March 24, 2023. https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/exhibitions/dominique-white-may-you-break-free-and-outlive-your-enemy-14372.
16.Encendida, La Casa. “Dominique White. May You Break Free and Outlive Your Enemy.” Home. Accessed March 24, 2023. https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/exhibitions/dominique-white-may-you-break-free-and-outlive-your-enemy-143
17.Kondapalli, Srinivas Sai A, Craig N Czyz, Andrew W Stacey, Kenneth V Cahill, and Jill A Foster. “Use of Kaolin-Impregnated Gauze for Improvement of Intraoperative Hemostasis and Postoperative Wound Healing in Blepharoplasty.” The Journal of clinical and aesthetic dermatology. U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 2016. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4928457/#:~:text=Purpose%3A%20Kaolin%20is%20a%20mineral,wound%20healing%20in%20eyelid%20surgery.
Dominique White, ‘May you break free and outlive your enemy’, 2021, mahogany, cast iron, forged iron, sisal, kaolin clay, nul sails. Shown at La Casa Encendida, 2023.
White is adverse to the ideas of victimisation, it is understood that the healing process now ensues as her installation bandages the damaged. Analogous to how gauze and kaolin combined would treat a weeping wound. Self-same to the historical and ongoing aggressive discrimination of diasporic people, which is widely disregarded but ought to be treated with urgency – May you break free and outlive your enemy thrusts this unsettling, disturbing and candidly taboo reality that still remains to be devoted adequate and rightful attention to. Here, in room A of La Casa Encendida it can not be ignored. A violent uprooting, where veins tear apart and shred in fury and unravel as a callous and exquisite crisscross of the waiting veins of a collective future; the installation is moulded from the metamorphic consequences of collective responsibility. White’s sculptures, or beacons, prophesy the emergence of the Stateless; “a (Black) future that hasn’t yet happened, but must.”18 The fragile, suspended pieces that emerge from this laborious process resemble a shipwreck – a recurring central concept for the artist.19 With each colourless cascade crashing into each other like ocean waves, White weaves together theories of Black Subjectivity and the nautical myths of Black Diaspora 20, she composes a new hierarchy taking the form of a wrecked ship. In order to interpret White’s redistributional intentions of May you break free and outlive your enemy, the term coined by English poet, Richard Braithwaite in the 17th century becomes relevant. The Hydrarchy refers to the naturally acquired power of individuals through the element of water. Defined as ‘the organisation of the maritime state from above, and the self-organisation of sailors from below’21 in The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic, the book written by Marcus Rediker and Peter Linebaughin becomes another reference point for the artist. Today new perspectives emerge from stormy seas, washing ashore the hidden histories and truths of those gone unacknowledged for so long. And so the Hydrarchy needs to be understood from above and below the water. ‘Hydrarchy from below refers to how seafaring people organise themselves and their lives. Historically this self-organisation includes a maritime tradition of resistance that is radical, democratic, and egalitarian. Hydrarchy from below is based on the work seafarers do, how they cooperate in a dangerous environment, and how they learn that solidarity is necessary for survival.’22 White, avowedly with May you break free and outlive your enemy places her message on a ship that is neither above nor below these waters, but somewhere, floating in between. In a space for new horizons, for new empowering mutations and new routes for resistance, for an emergence of something that refuses to be named.23 May you break free and outlive your enemy is a determined and resolute message in a bottle arriving on omnipresent shores. The reclamation of resilience is now free for all to un-scroll.
18.Encendida, La Casa. “Dominique White. May You Break Free and Outlive Your Enemy.” Home. Accessed March 24, 2023. https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/exhibitions/dominique-white-may-you-break-free-and-outlive-your-enemy-14372.
19.Encendida, La Casa. “Dominique White. May You Break Free and Outlive Your Enemy.” Home. Accessed March 24, 2023. https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/exhibitions/dominique-white-may-you-break-free-and-outlive-your-enemy-14372.
20.Encendida, La Casa. “Dominique White. May You Break Free and Outlive Your Enemy.” Home. Accessed March 24, 2023. https://www.lacasaencendida.es/en/exhibitions/dominique-white-may-you-break-free-and-outlive-your-enemy-14372.
21.“Review: The Red Atlantic Stable URL – Harvard University.” Accessed March 26, 2023. https://scholar.harvard.edu/armitage/files/30031239.pdf.
22.Palermo, Gabriella. “Hydrarchy, Maritime Resistance, and the Production of Race: An Interview with Marcus Rediker.” CounterPunch.org, October 12, 2021. https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/11/hydrarchy-maritime-resistance-and-the-production-of-race-an-interview-with-marcus-rediker/.
23.Encendida, La Casa. “Dominique White. May You Break Free and Outlive Your Enemy.” Home. Accessed March 24, 2023.
CONNIE HOPE 
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