Tongue Smell Color

Tongue Smell Color (2002) is a movement exploration of the implications of race, sex, and power. Using their own relationship as the foundation for the piece, Dr. Brenda Dixon Gottschild and Hellmut Gottschild examine their interracial relationship and the complex, layered histories embedded within their own experiences and embodiments of white man and Black woman. Citing important cultural touchstones from the infamous exploitation of Sara Baartman (the so-called "Venus Hottentot") to the media's treatment of tennis star Serena Williams, the pair grapple with popular culture and notions of exoticism and desire. They publicly contend with their private lives and the aporias of intimacy in their relationship—curiosity about the other, exoticizing one's own partner—in this powerful performance.