The world premiere of [siccer], a new, interdisciplinary work by artist Will Rawls, will take place at RØDE House in the Momentary starting at 8 p.m. April 21-22.
The performance is planned as a mix of electronic sound, vocals, dance and stop-motion filmmaking. Tickets are $30 for general entry, $25 for members and $10 for students. As part of [siccer], an ongoing video installation in the galleries will continue through June 4.
Director and choreographer Will Rawls, who is also a writer and professor of choreography at UCLA, says he built an interdisciplinary practice through experience working with theaters and stages, museums and galleries, printed works and now video, sculpture, installations and crochet.
The title for the exhibit, [siccer], comes from Rawls' fascination with the relationship between dance and language. It references the Latin adverb "[sic]," commonly used to signal that a certain word or phrase is not standard or proper English. Using [sic] is akin to showing credentials for using language that some people view as wrong, Rawls says.
"I think about that as a way to think more largely about Black performers and Black people, how our gestures and language are material for the media," he said Wednesday while seated in RØDE House before rehearsal. "I think about that from an individual perspective, but it says something about the collective experience as well."
Quotation in the age of memes can lead to tragedy turning into something that others view as funny, he says. That kind of displacement is something Rawls sees as an overall effect of mass media citation on Black life.
"I wanted to kind of lean into that and search for a way to stay communicating in a way that is not standard English, that preserves a kind of unruliness and expression that [sic], the word, tries to govern," Rawls says.
The development of this project stemmed from his interest in ungovernability and play for performers to find new ways to express themselves.
In Rawls' performance, he and five others will have the opportunity to "say something that goes beyond some of the fundamental, constructed antagonisms that this country is built on," he says. Siccer is an invented word to embody that meaning.
Of the five other artists, two are sound artists and the remaining are musicians and dancers. The dancers move within the stop-motion world with the help of a clicking metronome. As you see them perform, they come alive, says Cynthia Post-Hunt, curator of performance at the Momentary. They all bring in their own knowledge and work, Post-Hunt says.
[siccer] has many collaborators, including a dramaturg and a costumer in Berlin who made all the clothing worn by the dancers.
Will Rawls first connected with the Momentary contemporary art space in 2018 when he was chosen to participate in its Artist-in-Residence program, hosted by curators at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
At the time, the Momentary's building was still undergoing changes, so he was set up with some studio space at what was then known as the Arts Center of the Ozarks in Springdale. He says he was taken by the evolving nature of the burgeoning arts organization.
"In a way, the Momentary is a laboratory," he says. "It opened before the pandemic, shut down and kept going...
"There's never been a time when it's not been in speculation about itself, which is a cool thing for an institution to do, questioning itself and looking at itself critically and supportively."
The ongoing video installation in the Momentary galleries makes use of palm fronds, many shades of green, shadows and five different video screens. At times, a few or all of the screens may show the same video feed and at other times they seem to operate independently. (Courtesy Photo)
Involved in the performance are artists Holland Andrews, keyon gaskin, jess pretty, Katrina Reid, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste. Andrews and Toussaint-Baptiste orchestrated sound design and vocals. (Courtesy Photo)
The development of [siccer] stemmed from Will Rawls interest in ungovernability and play for performers to find new ways to express themselves. (Courtesy Photo)