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Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

  • Exhibitions
    • Current
    • Upcoming
    • Past
  • Calendar
  • Learning
    • Artist Residency
    • Bookshelf Residency
    • Digital Projects
    • Public Programs
    • Schools & Community
    • Special Projects
  • Visit
  • About
    • Staff
    • Governance
    • Press
    • Partnerships
    • Opportunities
    • Annual Report
  • Shop
  • Get Involved
    • Membership
    • Patron Groups
    • Institutional Support
    • Artist Edition Series
    • Sustainability
    • Corporate
  • Donate
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Back To Exhibitions
Will Rawls: [siccer] April 05 ➽ August 31
1 Upcoming Events
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Will Rawls: [siccer] April 05 ➽ August 31
1 Upcoming Events

Will Rawls: [siccer]

Exhibitions
[siccer] is an interdisciplinary project and immersive installation by artist and choreographer Will Rawls (b. 1978, Boston, MA), who is based between Los Angeles and New York. Marking Rawls’ most significant institutional presentation to date, [siccer] uses dance, stop-motion animation, and sound to investigate the role of media in documenting, exploiting, and erasing the Black body. 
Adopting the techniques and technologies associated with the cinema and the stage, Rawls’ work challenges divisions between the living, the rehearsed, and the performed. Produced with stop-motion animation, [siccer] features an all-Black cast of performers in various states of motion and capture. At once fragmented and continuous, the performers’ gestures glitch in and out of focus across a scaffolding of chroma green frames reminiscent of the green screens commonly associated with film production. While the green screen is traditionally meant to disappear, in [siccer], the screen becomes the setting for both performer and visitor. In this refusal to remain fixed, Rawls recontextualizes how racialized subjects navigate forced states of invisibility. And, as Kermit the Frog reminds us, “it’s not easy being green.” 
Adopting the techniques and technologies associated with the cinema and the stage, Rawls’ work challenges divisions between the living, the rehearsed, and the performed. Produced with stop-motion animation, [siccer] features an all-Black cast of performers in various states of motion and capture. At once fragmented and continuous, the performers’ gestures glitch in and out of focus across a scaffolding of chroma green frames reminiscent of the green screens commonly associated with film production. While the green screen is traditionally meant to disappear, in [siccer], the screen becomes the setting for both performer and visitor. In this refusal to remain fixed, Rawls recontextualizes how racialized subjects navigate forced states of invisibility. And, as Kermit the Frog reminds us, “it’s not easy being green.” 
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Installation view, Holland Andrews, Katrina Reid, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, jess pretty, and keyon gaskin featured in _Will Rawls: [siccer]_, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, April 5-August 31, 2025. Photo: Jeff McLane/ICA
The project’s title is inspired by the Latin adverb sic, often used within brackets to indicate incorrect spelling within a citation. Through this titular reference, [siccer] illuminates the ways in which Black subjectivity resists standard Western forms of “correction,” suggesting instead a way of being that is both iterative and endlessly becoming. In an image-saturated world wherein our technologies and identities are inextricably intertwined, [siccer] points to the trap of the ever-present camera—echoed in the repeated snaps that resound from the installation’s soundscape—and the intensive labor of becoming an image. This exhaustion of being held in a constant state of fugitivity is further emphasized by the cattails scattered throughout the gallery, which allude to the environment of the swamp. Neither land nor water, but a territory that exists between both landscapes, the swamp represents an ecological site of transformation. For Black and Indigenous people in particul …

The project’s title is inspired by the Latin adverb sic, often used within brackets to indicate incorrect spelling within a citation. Through this titular reference, [siccer] illuminates the ways in which Black subjectivity resists standard Western forms of “correction,” suggesting instead a way of being that is both iterative and endlessly becoming. In an image-saturated world wherein our technologies and identities are inextricably intertwined, [siccer] points to the trap of the ever-present camera—echoed in the repeated snaps that resound from the installation’s soundscape—and the intensive labor of becoming an image. This exhaustion of being held in a constant state of fugitivity is further emphasized by the cattails scattered throughout the gallery, which allude to the environment of the swamp. Neither land nor water, but a territory that exists between both landscapes, the swamp represents an ecological site of transformation. For Black and Indigenous people in particular, the swamp has historically served as a space of refuge, liberation, and self-reclamation.

Embracing the liminality of the swamp, Rawls—together with performers Holland Andrews, keyon gaskin, jess pretty, Katrina Reid, and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste—explores the limits and possibilities of gesture and language to speculate on collective strategies of narrating the world, uncorrected.

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Installation view, _Will Rawls: [siccer]_, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, April 5-August 31, 2025. Photo: Jeff McLane/ICA
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Installation view, Will Rawls: [siccer], Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, April 5–August 31, 2025. Photo: Jeff McLane/ICA LA
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April 10, 2025, 8:30 PM - 10 PM
April 11, 2025, 8:30 PM - 10 PM
April 12, 2025, 8:30 PM - 10 PM
Will Rawls: [siccer]
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April 05, 2025, 3 PM - 7 PM
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May 01, 2025, 7 PM - 8:30 PM
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May 14, 2025, 7 PM - 8:30 PM
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June 04, 2025, 7 PM - 8:30 PM
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June 25, 2025, 7 PM - 8:30 PM
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March 01, 2025
Will Rawls’ [siccer] Explores Black Identity Through Movement
May 07, 2025
Will Rawls “[siccer]” at ICA, Los Angeles

Will Rawls: [siccer] is organized by Amanda Sroka, Senior Curator, with Emilia Shaffer-Del Valle, Curatorial Associate.

Lead funding forWill Rawls: [siccer] is provided by the Pasadena Art Alliance, Karen Hillenburg, Sarah and Joel McHale, Dori and Charles Mostov, and Anonymous. Additional support is provided by Tim Disney and John Morace & Tom Kennedy.

ICA LA is supported by the Curator’s Council and Fieldwork Council.

The [siccer] live performances are presented by REDCAT and ICA LA. [siccer] was originally commissioned by The Kitchen in partnership with co-commissioners, The Momentary, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, On the Boards, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

For their production support, artist would also like to thank: Kemi Adeyemi, Dana Doughty, Rebecca Fitton, Jimmy Garver, Maggie Heath, Sasha Okshteyn, Saša Kovačević, Lauryn Siegel, Indigo Sparks and David Szlasa.

[siccer] was made possible, in part, by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and is a Creative Capital Project. [siccer] is also a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project which is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). [siccer] also received substantial developmental support from THINKLARGE.US, a family run nonprofit created by Don Quinn Kelley and Sandra L. Burton to aid in the creation of new work.

[siccer] was developed and supported, in part, by residencies at The Momentary and Portland Institute for Contemporary Arts, with additional support by On the Boards and The Kitchen; a creative residency at Petronio Residency Center, a program of the Stephen Petronio Company; with financial, administrative and residency support from Dance in Process at Gibney with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Movement Research; the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at the University of California Los Angeles and The Hammer Museum Residency; the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University; with production support and residency provided by EMPAC / Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Williams College and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

The forthcoming [siccer] album was made possible with support from the Barbara Streisand Center for the Study of Women at UCLA.

Will Rawls is an artist and choreographer whose multidisciplinary practice explores the ambiguities of Blackness—its visibility and erasure, its performance and abstraction—to reframe the relationship between language and the body. In 2016, he co-curated Lost and Found, a six-week program of performances and artist projects at Danspace Project focused on the intergenerational impact of HIV/AIDS on dancers, women, and people of color. Based in Los Angeles, he currently teaches in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at the University of California, Los Angeles and lectures widely in academic and community contexts. In addition, his work has been exhibited across the U.S., including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; MoMA PS1, New York; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR; The Chocolate Factory Theater, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Institute of Contemporary Art Boston; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven.
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Last updated at Friday, 30 May 2025 4:44 PM, by Amanda Sroka Log in
Database Exhibitions
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STATUS ID Title Start date End date Featured image Last updated
Active Published
64 Lucas Blalock:
An Enormous Oar
2019-02-10 2019-08-04
Icla2.12.19 95
4:52pm Apr 09, 2020 Page
Active Published
62 Adrian Piper
What It’s Like, What It Is #3
2018-10-07 2019-01-06
1991 what its like 3
12:12pm Jul 16, 2019 Page
Active Published
61 Agency of Assets:
Reality Augmented
2018-09-30 2019-01-06
Agencyofassets
1:44pm Apr 07, 2020 Page
Active Published
4 B. Wurtz:
This Has No Name
2018-09-30 2019-02-17
Wurtz install 05
4:54pm Apr 09, 2020 Page
Active Published
6 Nina Chanel Abney:
Royal Flush
2018-09-23 2019-01-20
Abney install 02
11:58am Jul 16, 2019 Page
Active Published
2 This Brush for Hire: Norm Laich & Many Other Artists 2018-06-03 2018-09-02
Brush for hire 14
9:02am Dec 06, 2021 Page
Active Published
20 sisters and brothers 2018-04-22 2018-06-17
Brothers & sisters 02
11:54am Jul 16, 2019 Page
Active Published
18 rafa esparza: de la Calle 2018-04-22 2018-07-15
Rafa esparza install 02
11:46am Aug 03, 2021 Page
Active Published
9 Grandfather: A Pioneer Like Us (1974) 2018-02-04 2018-04-22
Szeeman install 10
11:49am Jul 16, 2019 Page
Active Published
8 Skip Arnold: Truffle Hunt 2018-01-28 2018-04-08
Arnold install 11
11:45am Jul 16, 2019 Page
Active Published
1 Martín Ramírez: His Life in Pictures, Another Interpretation 2017-09-09 2017-12-31
Ramirez install 02
6:55pm Apr 02, 2020 Page
Active Published
7 Abigail DeVille: No Space Hidden (Shelter) 2017-09-09 2018-01-14
Deville install 02
11:37am Jul 16, 2019 Page
Active Published
5 Sarah Cain: Now I’m going to tell you everything 2017-09-09 2018-03-11
Ica cain 2017 09 06 001
1:19pm Nov 16, 2021 Page
Active Published
11 Moshe Ninio:
Rainbow:Rug
2015-01-17 2015-04-02
1
11:39pm Sep 22, 2017 Page
Active Published
10 Brian Weil, 1979–1995:
Being in the World
2015-01-17 2015-04-18
1
11:40pm Sep 22, 2017 Page
Active Published
12 Citizen Culture: Artists and Architects Shape Policy  2014-09-13 2014-12-13
1
11:38pm Sep 22, 2017 Page
Active Published
13 Anri Sala: Dammi i Colori  2014-09-12 2014-11-08
1
11:34pm Sep 22, 2017 Page
Active Published
14 Robert Swain: The Form of Color  2014-05-17 2014-08-23
1
4:59pm Mar 08, 2018 Page
Active Published
15 Nonfictions: Jeremiah Day/Simone Forti/Fred Dewey  2014-05-17 2014-08-23
3
11:38pm Sep 22, 2017 Page
Active Published
17 Xylor Jane: Sea Legs 2014-01-18 2014-04-05
Xylor jane 017
5:08pm Mar 08, 2018 Page
Active Published
16 Keltie Ferris: Doomsday Boogie 2014-01-17 2014-04-05
Keltie ferris 021
5:07pm Mar 08, 2018 Page
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