Fragment and Form: Emii Alrai, Mónica Mays, Dominique White at the Henry Moore Foundation
Fragment and Form is an extraordinary exhibition, it’s both calming and unsettling at the same time. The space itself feels trustworthy as you enter, washed in soft plaster tones that make it seem almost unfinished, as though something is still being formed. Which is exactly the right atmosphere for a show that asks us to think about what remains and what’s rebuilt.
Three artists — Emii Alrai, Mónica Mays, and Dominique White — explore history through material. Their work considers how objects hold memory, how they can reveal and obscure the past, and how they’re used to construct the stories we tell about who we are.
Emii Alrai, Wallow’s Brace , 2025, steel, clay, copper, patinates, pigment
Alrai’s sculptures recall archaeological ruins and looted artefacts, their surfaces crumbling and cracking, they refuse the authority of the museum, challenging the idea of what’s worth preserving.
Nearby, Mays gathers found objects and organic matter to question what labour and care look like when the world feels extractive. I especially loved Shadow Boxes; delicate flowers printed on silk glimmering over cocoons hidden in taxonomy boxes. They speak of beauty and ruin in the same breath, what if everything that survives must first be undone.
And then there’s Dominique White’s work: haunting, oceanic. Twisted metal forms rest against the floor like the remains of a shipwreck, surrounded by bright light and stillness.
Standing in the gallery, I couldn’t help but think about the cycle of creation and destruction — how beauty so often grows from wreckage, and how soon it might return there again.
Fragment and Form is challenging, yes, but in the best possible way. I really can’t recommend it enough.
On view at the Henry Moore Institute until 2nd November 2025.