PHILADELPHIA, PA.- On view this spring at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, Dominique White and Alberta Whittle: Sargasso Sea explores the impact of transatlantic colonial legacies on contemporary understandings of power, race, gender, and geography. The exhibition takes its name from the natural phenomenon of the Sargasso Sea, the only body of water defined by oceanic currents rather than shorelines. The body of water and how it conjures questions of migration and Black feminist theory serves as a conceptual link between White and Whittle’s work, shown here for the first time together. Through monumental oceanic-inspired sculptures, paintings, and videos, White and Whittle investigate the dualities of the sea’s transformative powers, as a site that disrupted colonial voyages as well as a metaphorical place of regeneration.

Organized by the ICA and curated by Daniella Rose King, Dominique White and Alberta Whittle: Sargasso Sea is on view from February 10 through July 7, 2024. The exhibition marks King’s third exhibition at ICA, two of which were conceived and mounted during her Whitney-Lauder Curatorial Fellowship at ICA from 2017 to 2020.

“We are honored to bring Daniella Rose King back to ICA to complete a trilogy of conceptually linked curatorial investigations that she began during her ICA fellowship,” remarks Zoë Ryan, Daniel W. Dietrich, II Director. “This type of sustained investment in innovative and ambitious work perfectly aligns with ICA’s mission to serve as a launchpad for new art and ideas, one which supports both artists and curators alike. The Whitney-Lauder Fellowship has been important in realizing this part of our mission, as it provides emerging professionals access to the art world and opportunities to grow as curators.”

“In my research of contemporary practices engaging with transatlantic colonialism, I was struck by the poetic and material approaches of both White and Whittle—two very different artists who are both interacting with this subject matter in incredible new ways,” said guest curator Daniella Rose King. “For both artists, the Atlantic and specifically the Sargasso Sea are sites of confluence, bringing together natural and human forces, complicated histories with potential futures of rebirth. Nautical mythologies, theories of Afro-pessimism and Black subjectivity, and forms of collective care converge in their practices, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to create a dedicated space for this creative dialogue.”

The Sargasso Sea lies north of the Caribbean, stretching up towards the American coast and out towards the mid-Atlantic, encompassing an ecological system supported by the seaweed Sargassum. Historically, the sea was the site of marine routes that eventually would reorganize the world through colonial expansion, trade, trafficking, and enslavement. In this exhibition, White and Whittle recall these nautical histories through their use of materials, ranging from seashells to salvaged sails, and create works that invoke futures that upend our current realities, with counterimages of shipwreck, salvage, and Black, feminist-led revolution.

On view throughout ICA’s second-floor galleries, White and Whittle’s work will be exhibited in dialogue with one another. Highlighted works include large-scale sculptures by White, which incorporate natural materials manipulated by wind and the sea. Exhibited in states of suspension, assemblages To the Hunted, May You Continue to Be Their Worst Nightmare I (2022) and Can We Be Known Without Being Hunted (2022) feature towering iron harpoons, rusted and bent, entangled with damaged rope and heavy twine to summon a range of potential alternative narratives of Black embodiment.

Other highlights include Whittle’s feature-length video installation Between A Whisper and a Cry (2019), which explores theories that utilize aspects of natural phenomena to describe how reverberations of the slave trade persist today. Alongside the projection screen, the installation will feature a partly-sunken replica of what is known in Barbados as a “chattel house,” a small moveable wooden house with origins in the plantation system. Also on view are a series of Whittle’s more recent paintings that explore notions of the ‘Caribbean Gothic’ influenced by her reading of Jean Rhys’ text Wide Sargasso Sea as well as suspended installations incorporating cowrie shells and beads.

Dominique White

Fascinated by the sea as a metaphor and site of regenerative power, Dominique White’s practice combines the aesthetics of decay, fragility, and industrial interiors through her use of discarded yet visually potent material, including nautical salvage. White draws on theories of Black Subjectivity, Afro-pessimism and “Hydrarchy from below” (addressing and countering the histories of empires, states, and corporations alike to claim ownership and power over land through their passage on, and domination of, bodies of water). White was awarded the 2023 Max Mara Art Prize for Women, awards from Artangel and the Henry Moore Foundation in 2020, and the Roger Pailhas Prize (Art-O-Rama) in 2019. Recent solo exhibitions include When Disaster Strikes at Kunsthalle Münster, Münster (2023-4); May you break free and outlive your enemy at La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2023); and Statements at ArtBasel, Basel (2022). White was born in 1993 in the United Kingdom, lives in Marseille and Essex, and works nomadically.

Alberta Whittle

Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle’s multifaceted practice responds to the legacies of the Atlantic slave trade, unpicking its connections to institutional racism, white supremacy, and climate emergency in the present. Against this oppressive background, she aims to foreground hope and engage with different forms of resistance. Whittle represented Scotland in the 59th Venice Biennale and is a 2022 recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Awards for Artists. In 2020, she was awarded a Turner Bursary and the Frieze Artist Award and was the Margaret Tait Award winner of 2018/19. Whittle recently presented a solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and at The Modern Institute, Osborne Street, Glasgow. She currently has a major solo presentation on display at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. White was born in 1980 in Bridgetown, Barbados, and lives and works in Glasgow.