Video source: TikTok, @thinus.els
It is Sunday morning 8 November 2026. I came across this video on TikTok. I found it intriguing and kept returning to watch it again.
What I see is a sketch with movement.
A still photograph reveals form. A simple movement also reveals weight, scale and the relationship between an object and the body. Here, the clothing, handbag and gestures create a changing composition - a drawing that briefly comes to life.
There is something here that holds my attention, although I cannot quite put my finger on it yet. I want to return to this video later and study it more closely.
On watching again, my attention shifts to their arms and hands. His gestures appear firm and clearly defined, while hers sometimes seem to release their tension, leaving the wrists and fingers hanging.
What holds my attention is the handbag. She appears to hold its strap between her teeth, allowing her hands to move without carrying it. For a moment, the mouth takes over a task I would normally expect the hands to perform.
Then her hands become purposeful again: they grasp the strap and lift the bag. I find this change between apparent limpness and deliberate action intriguing.
This is my reading of the gestures, rather than a judgment about either person. There is something in the contrast between holding, hanging and releasing that I want to study further.
I noticed a resemblance to voguing, which I have explored previously in my sketchbook.
The connection, for me, lies in the hand gestures, the changing angles of the wrists and the way the arms create shapes around the body. Firm, defined gestures sit alongside softer, more fluid movements. Each transition changes how I read the figure.
I am not suggesting that this performance is necessarily voguing. Rather, it brings me back to the same interest: how hands and arms can turn movement into a visual language. This is where my earlier sketchbook notes and this new observation begin to meet - a sketch with movement.
Watching this short video again, my attention turns to the relationship between the hands and the handbag. For a moment, she appears to hold the strap between her teeth. Her hands continue to move, but they are not carrying the bag. Then she grasps the strap again, and her hands take over the task.
I provisionally call this observation Suspended Gesture. For me, it describes the moment when a hand is present and moving but is temporarily neither holding nor supporting anything.
The movement can be described simply as: hold, let hang, release and grasp again. What interests me is how the meaning of the hand changes. When the wrist and fingers hang loosely, I mainly see a shape. When the fingers close around the strap, I see a hand carrying weight and performing a clear task.
My question is: what changes in the wrist and fingers when a loose, hanging hand begins to hold something again? How much needs to change before I, as a viewer, begin to perceive firmness, weight or purpose?
This reminds me of the hand and arm movements in voguing, where gestures and changing positions become part of the expression. I am not identifying this performance as voguing; voguing has its own technique and ballroom tradition. I do, however, see a connection worth exploring.
This shift between hanging and grasping could also become a starting point for choreography. For me, it is not yet a new style or a fully developed idea. It is a personal observation that I want to explore through drawing and further movement studies.