Battle of the Beasts, Revisited, 2018, featuring special guests Roger Y. Dunn and Oscar A. Reyes Bogran, Boston Sculptors Gallery, Boston, MA
Spiro is a performance and video artist and Olympic Weightlifter. She uses strength and weightlifting as a symbol of survival, empowerment and celebration. Weightlifting becomes a vehicle for discussing women’s role in society. Her videos, photos and installations are on view in the Match of the Matriarchs exhibition.
The original Battle of the Beasts featured Jennifer Shade playing a chess game against Vanessa Sun. Spiro also invited two male athletes to lift the life-size chess pieces during the chess game. “In the wings, off the game-board, a woman lifts a weight, ignored, unthanked, the clanging of her barbell echoing in the void. She toils away, watching the men move the pieces, until she decides to drop her weight and march into the thick of the game. A tussle. One of the men, she shoves away, breaks his grip on his piece, and knocks him down. Now it’s her piece. She moves it alone.” - Silas Jackson (special guest)
In Battle of the Beasts, Revisited, there will be two male chess players and Spiro will be alone with no loaders. Will she be able to lift all the chess pieces alone? Can she do it all? Is she expected to? Does she have to do it with a smile?