In the live performance Becoming an Image, Cassils unleashes an attack on a 2,000 pound clay block in total darkness.
The spectacle is illuminated solely by the flash of a photographer, burning the image into the viewer’s retina. Becoming an Image was originally conceived as a site-specific work for the ONE Archives in Los Angeles, the oldest active LGBTQ archive in the United States. Cassils now performs this work around the world.
“This project by Cassils epitomizes a new mode of hybrid practices that draws on a legacy of body, conceptual, and installation art to render new complex art experiences that are performative yet exist in various material forms.”
Large scale color photographs depict Cassils sweating, grimacing, and flying through the air as a primal force--pummelling the one ton clay obelisk. In recent iterations, Cassils installs these performative photographs atop custom wallpaper of the audience watching the performance-- formally turning the lens of the camera back towards the viewers.
“At the core of Cassils’ durational performances is this principle of calculated risk in the face of the material’s capacity, and, as Acker says, of the ultimate material, “of the body’s inexorable movement towards its final failure, toward death”
Cassils
Becoming An Image, Video
(ONE National Archives, Transactivations, Los Angeles), 2012
photo: Cassils with Eric Charles Edit: Terri Zitnick
sound: Cassils with France Jobin
Courtesy of the artist
Cassils
Becoming An Image, Performance Still No. 2
(Edgy Women Festival, Montreal), 2013
photo: Cassils with Alejandro Santiago
Courtesy of the artist
Cassils
Becoming An Image, Performance Still No. 1
(Edgy Women Festival, Montreal), 2013
photo: Cassils with Alejandro Santiago
Courtesy of the artist
Cassils
Becoming An Image, Performance Still No. 1
(National Theater Studio, SPILL Festival, London), 2013
photo: Cassils with Manuel Vason
Courtesy of the artist
Cassils
Becoming an Image, Performance Still No. 3
(Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth International Performance Festival), 2019
photo: Cassils with Manuel Vason
Courtesy of the artist
Cassils
Becoming An Image, Performance Still No. 4
(ONE National Archives, Transactivations, Los Angeles), 2012
photo: Cassils with Eric Charles
Courtesy of the artist
Cassils
Becoming An Image, Performance Still No. 2
(Incendiary, MU, Eindoven, Netherlands), 2015
photo: Cassils with Rem Van Den Bosch
Courtesy of the artist
Cassils
Becoming An Image, Wallpaper No. 3
(Melt/Carve/Forge, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia), 2016
photo: Cassils with Manuel Vason
Courtesy of the artist
Cassils
Resiliance of the 20%, Installation Image No. 1
(Body of Work, Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York), 2013
photo: Cassils with Megan Paetzhold
Courtesy of the artist
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Cassils
Ghost
(Body of Work, Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York), 2013
photo: Cassils with Megan Paetzhold
Courtesy of the artist
