blackmilk, 2023

In blackmilk Tiran Willemse investigates hand movements as expressions of self-representation and identity: on the one hand the precise, choreographed gestures of formation dances of South-African drum majorettes (called “trompoppies” in Afrikaans); on the other the melodramatic bodily behaviour of pop culture icons such as that of white female film stars as well as the hand signs characteristic of Black male rappers. The movement sequences developed by Willemse create their own vocabulary of gestures that refuse clear ascription to gender or cultural norms and question the medial representation of Black masculinity. To this day Black masculinity is deeply inflected by the history of oppression and is represented with limited and repeated stereotypes. In response blackmilk develops a multi-dimensional figure of identification both sensitive and tender. Willemse describes it as “Black male melancholia.”