HOLLY WHITE
Holly White
Spinnin
2026, brass, copper, found candle, 170 x 180 x 115 mm
Photography by Chris Bowes.
ARTIST STATEMENT
HOLLY WHITE
One of the first gifts I remember being given as a little girl was a porcelain jewellery box with a small ballerina twirling inside, and a wind-up music box below. I felt a gift so precious and so nice was only allowed to hold my most precious and best jewellery. I used my ideation of a spinning ballerina to make the work move non mechanically like a music box, so I decided to give a candle carousel a go at being made and allowing my 2D figures to spin. This piece follows the price of silver due to how expensive it would be if it was made of silver sheet rather than brass, and the labour of which would go unacknowledged due to a consumer not wanting to pay for such materials let alone the time and effort put into such a piece.
Each ballerina is dancing to Swan Lake, in different positions. This is seen when the propeller spins and the dancer begins dancing to Swan Lake. Once a flame is placed beneath the propeller spins slowly whilst illuminating the pieces. A viewer observed the piece with the assumption that it spins, with the symbolism of the passage of time, evoking a sense of childhood reminicent of a larger carousel, whilst also tying into the dancing of the ballerinas moving circles but never leaving the place they were planted.
PROFILE
Holly White is a South-East Melbourne-based emerging multidisciplinary artist working across ceramics, jewellery, and painting. Her practice is habitual and intuitive, often using engraving on everyday objects, such as mirrors and frames, as a way to draw through her jewellery work. She incorporates techniques, including filigree, creating ornate, Victorian-inspired forms that emerge instinctively. Her work explores a tension between minimalism and ornament, forming a distinctly “minimally ornate” aesthetic.
Engaging with hyper-femininity from a feminist perspective, she challenges the notion of women as objects of display, often juxtaposing delicacy with grotesque elements.
