Will Rawls: [siccer]

In [siccer], Will Rawls considers the ways in which Black bodies are relentlessly documented, distorted, and circulated in the media. This dance performance, presented together with the artist’s exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA), experiments with stop-motion, a filmmaking technique in which still photographs are strung together to produce a moving image. Throughout [siccer]’s live performance, Holland Andrews, keyon gaskin, jess pretty, Katrina Reid, and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste are suspended in an uncanny reenactment of an iconic American film. When the camera’s shutter closes momentarily between photographs, Rawls and collaborators play within the intervals, taking advantage of a gap in surveillance. The project’s title is driven by the usage of “[sic],” a Latin adverb which indicates incorrect spelling within a quotation, often employed to contrast Black vernacular with standard English.