Dominic McHenry: A King Dies Standing

HeritageXplore x The Dot Project

 Artist-in-Residence Programme |  Summer–Autumn 2026

Residency : 5th May – 1st June

Exhibition: 5th June – 22nd June

Created during a residency at Eastnor Castle, ‘A King Dies Standing’ draws its title from a phrase associated with the game of chess. Throughout his time at the castle, Dominic McHenry became increasingly attuned to its atmosphere of symbolism, strategy and ceremony. It’s towers and turrets, heraldic motifs and richly layered interiors began to suggest a world governed by its own logic – one shaped by ritual, power and the movement of forms through space.

The works emerged from an immersion in this environment. At Eastnor, there is scarcely a surface untouched by the hand of a maker. Carved, painted, gilded and ornamented, the castle reveals a dense accumulation of artistic labour that stands in stark contrast to the pared-back aesthetics of contemporary life. For McHenry, this abundance became both inspiration and provocation.

Working fluidly between sculpture and painting, McHenry constructs a visual language rooted in geometry, repetition and form. Totemic sculptures are presented alongside paintings developed through classical techniques and housed within hand-crafted frames that operate as sculptural extensions of the works themselves. Across both disciplines, recurring motifs shift and reappear, moving between object and image, structure and symbol.

Influenced by folk traditions, medieval decoration and modernist design, McHenry’s work often explores the relationship between formal systems and intuitive expression. Like chess, it is built upon a set of underlying rules, yet remains open to variation, chance and interpretation. At Eastnor, this dialogue found a natural counterpart in an environment where centuries of craftsmanship, ornament and symbolism coexist within an intricate and enduring whole.

In ‘A King Dies Standing’ – geometry meets ornament, pattern meets history, and the logic of the game gives way to something more poetic: a meditation on craft, time, and the enduring power of symbols.