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The Lab presents two performances examining physical exertion and breath. Santa Cruz-based duo Robbie Trocchia and Nicki Duval collaborate with San Francisco-based queer weightlifter Sebastian Rios-Sialer on a new performance piece Peak. Vallejo-based artist Whitney Vangrin, last at The Lab for a performance as part of the 2023 Headlands Center for the Arts Graduate Fellows exhibition, premieres a new piece Breath into Doe, continuing the concepts initiated in the work of Fog and Dough (2023).

Building off of the collaborative performance bout, which staged and reconfigured George Bellows’ boxing paintings with the help of two competitive boxers, Peak represents another foray into the intersection of arts and athletics for Robbie Trocchia and Nicki Duval. The piece features the words and physical performance of San Francisco-based queer weightlifter Sebastian Rios-Sialer within an audiovisual environment designed by Trocchia and Duval. Peak is informed by the intensity of competitive weight maximization, engaging with Rios-Sialer’s experiences of strength training, emotional catharsis, and community-building. Featuring video design by Rory Willats.

"In "Breath into Doe," Whitney Vangrin's performance embodies somatic principles, metaphorically suggesting life-saving measures by breathing air into yeast dough via surgical tubing. This transformation of dough, traditionally associated with baking and nourishment, becomes an exploration of the body's malleability and its capacity to shift, adapt, and transform in response to external forces. As the dough fluidly morphs and adapts, it mirrors the fluidity of the human form, the vulnerability of the dough underscores its capacity to shift and transform, highlighting the delicate balance between resilience and fragility inherent in both the dough and the human body.

The audience is offered a drink of Kvass (kuh-vass) and is able to observe the processes of its creation. From grain to grass, to flour to bread, to its submersion in water and honey. A live feed camera records the fermentation process as well as surveilling the viewer’s movement in space. Traditional Kvass takes stale bread, usually rye bread, and turns it into a bubbly probiotic beverage. It is a common drink in Ukraine and many Central European Slavic countries. Toasted Bread is mixed with boiled water and honey and fermented by the addition of a yeast starter. Fermentation was a process to ward off pathogens prior to refrigeration and Kvass was consumed by the peasant class whom had limited access to clean water."

Whitney Vangrin received her MFA from The University of California, Davis, CA and was recipient of the Provost’s Fellowships in the Arts, Humanities and Social Science. She is currently a Grad Fellow at the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts. In 2012-13 she ran the collaborative exhibition space 1:1 with Jarrett Earnest, Leigha Mason, Alex Sloane at 121 Essex Street, NYC. She has presented performance work at MoMa PS1, Swiss Institute, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, and ICA, Philadelphia and has exhibited throughout the United States and in Switzerland, Germany and Taiwan.