Donna Dodson and the Match of the Matriarchs

​​Donna Dodson’s newest series of mysterious animal-human-wood hybrid sculptures, Match of the Matriarchs, will debut at Boston Sculptors Gallery (486 Harrison Ave.) from October 3 through November 4, 2018. The sculpture group is a chess set that continues Dodson’s increasingly well-known works of solid female forms carved with humor, sensitivity, and the interplay of woodgrain and color.

“The genesis of this chess set started with a show I had at the New Bedford Art Museum in 2016,” Dodson said. “I created five "mermaids" that were inspired by the history of ship prow carvings. But I wanted to do more with this series so I decided to give myself the challenge of making a chess set.” This idea allowed her to build on the concept of sculptures that interact directly with each other, while reflecting on the interactions among species that have nothing to do with us humans.

“The reason we know squid exist is due to the scars on the side of whales,” Dodson said. “This deep sea battle between the squid and the whale gave me the idea of making a team of cephalopods—octopus, squid and cuttlefish—battling against the cetaceans—orca, narwhal and elephant seal.”

​She began by reading natural history books like Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods by Danna Staff, Soul of the Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery and Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith.

​To learn about the game of chess, she also researched Birth of the Chess Queen: A History by Marilyn Yalom and Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport by Jennifer Shahade.

My set is maternal—I am thinking about family matriarchies, the realm of power in women's lives, how women wield power and the bonds between women in families.”

​“The history of chess sets is that they used to just have King, Vizier/General, and other army figures,” Dodson explained. “The queen came onto the board about the same time as the appearance of many powerful queens in England, Russia and Spain.”
Dodson reflected on that change and decided that “my set is maternal—I am thinking about family matriarchies, the realm of power in women's lives, how women wield power and the bonds between women in families.”

Donna Dodson’s sculptures have been shown in nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions, she has received numerous grants, fellowships, and residencies, and her work is in the permanent collections of Provincetown Art Museum, the Art Complex Museum and the Fuller Craft Museum in Massachusetts and the Davistown Museum in Maine. With her husband, the sculptor Andy Moerlein, she is a member of the art collective “The Myth Makers”—but that is a whole other story.

Find out more about Donna Dodson at her website at ​http://donnadodsonartist.blogspot.com/

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