Donna Dodson's All-Women Chess Set Exhibition Opens at Museum for Art in Wood Sculptor Donna Dodson presents Match of the Matriarchs, a life-size all-women chess set, at the Museum for Art in Wood in Philadelphia this November. Sculptor Donna Dodson is set to open Match of the Matriarchs, an exhibition centered on a life-size, 32-piece chess set featuring all women pieces, at the Museum for Art in Wood in Philadelphia in November. The 24-by-24-foot set, handcrafted from salvaged wood, explores power, matriarchy, and the role of women in society through the lens of one of the world's oldest games. Childhood Chess Battles Inspire Matriarchal ArtDodson, 58 and based in Massachusetts, grew up in the Midwest playing chess with her older brother on a hand-carved onyx set gifted by their grandparents. She often lost, and the experience left a lasting mark. In a recent phone interview, she described the humiliation of always losing as creating a fire in her, and said making this chess set is a way of reclaiming her agency and dignity.The exhibition, which shares its name with the artwork, examines power, matriarchy, and the role of women in society. The pieces range from roughly four feet to six feet in height and sit atop a massive board that will include an interactive element, with details still being finalized before the show opens in November.Exhibition Design and Interactive ElementsAccording to the museum's program notes, the show aims to transform the traditionally hierarchical game into a speculative arena of matriarchal power and ecological symbolism. A second, smaller chess set on a board roughly 12 feet by 12 feet will be fully interactive, with visitors encouraged to stage their own matches and move the pieces as their strategies demand.Dodson said that by playing a game, or inviting viewers to come in and rearrange artwork, a new artwork is created every time. The exhibition also includes about nine other artistic chess sets, among them one designed by famed Pennsylvania artist Wharton Esherick and a micro-set with pieces that can only be moved using tweezers.Philadelphia Debut and Broader Chess RevivalPrior to its debut at the Museum for Art in Wood, Dodson's piece was displayed at the Boston Sculptors Gallery and, most recently, at the World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis. The Philadelphia version will include expanded programming.Jennifer-Navva Milliken, executive director and chief curator at the Museum for Art in Wood, said that by placing the feminine at the forefront of a game so deeply associated with power, conflict, and hierarchy, Dodson asks us to reconsider its origins and to wonder what may have been lost as the game evolved over time.Dodson was never the artsy kid in school. She attended Wellesley College in New England with plans of becoming a doctor and even worked as a candy striper. Her medical ambitions dwindled as she turned to art in her mid-20s, along with her childhood love for chess. It was not until she met Joseph Wheelwright, the noted Boston sculptor who became her mentor and taught her woodworking, that she returned to the game. Wheelwright, who died in 2016, would ask her to play during lunch breaks, and though he would clobber Dodson even while handicapping himself, the matches served as inspiration for Match of the Matriarchs.In Philadelphia, Dodson has found a fitting setting for her exhibit. The city is home to Jennifer Shahade, an author and three-time national chess champion, whose artwork will also be featured. Dodson said Shahade has created a number of conceptual works and videos that recontextualize chess and chess sets as art. The exhibition also coincides with the Philadelphia Museum of Art's presentation from Marcel Duchamp, an artist famously infatuated with chess who occasionally incorporated the game into his work.The Museum for Art in Wood exhibit comes on the heels of a worldwide resurgence in the game spurred by both the pandemic and the 2020 release of the Netflix series The Queen's Gambit, which starred Anya Taylor-Joy and drove a wave of new interest in chess, particularly among girls and women.Dodson partakes in some form of chess daily, playing a weekly game in Maynard, Massachusetts, where she now lives, as well as online. She said she has become much more knowledgeable about the current chess community, what is going on in the chess world, and has met some of the real-life champions in chess, which is all super exciting.Dodson, who will be present Nov. 7 for an artist talk at the museum, said she hopes the game's universal charm will make the exhibit accessible to a wide audience. She noted that a lot of people do not feel comfortable going into art museums, feeling they do not know enough or whatever, and she hopes this show changes that.