Photoville

Cassils with Manuel Vason
Cassils with Manuel Vason
This performance takes place in total darkness with zero visibility.
Becoming an Image is a piece that works at the interstices of performance,  photography, and sculpture. This piece 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 unleashes an attack on a 2000 pound clay block. Delivering a series of kicks and blows in total darkness, the spectacle is illuminated only by the flash of a photographer, burning the image into the viewer’s retina. At Cassils’s solo show at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, 12 photographs were displayed. They were taken by blinded photographers who captured performances from prior exhibitions in London, Montreal, and Los Angeles.

Artist Bios

  • CASSILS

    CASSILS is a visual artist working in live performance, film, sound, sculpture and photography.

    Listed by the Huffington Post as “one of ten transgender artists who are changing the landscape of contemporary art,” Cassils has achieved international recognition for a rigorous engagement with the body as a form of social sculpture.Drawing on conceptualism, feminism, body art, gay male aesthetics, Cassils forges a series of powerfully trained bodies for different performative purposes. It is with sweat, blood and sinew that Cassils constructs a visual critique around ideologies and histories.

    Website | Instagram

Organizations

  • For Freedoms

    For Freedoms

    We believe citizenship is defined by participation, not by ideology. Through non-partisan nationwide programming, we use art as as vehicle for participation to deepen public discussions on civic issues and core values. We are a hub for artists, arts institutions, and citizens who want to be more engaged in public life.

    Founded in 2016 by artists Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman, For Freedoms is a platform for creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action. Inspired by American artist Norman Rockwell’s paintings of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms (1941)—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear—For Freedoms’ exhibitions, installations, and public programs use art to deepen public discussions on civic issues and core values, and to advocate for equality, dialogue, and civic participation. As a nexus between art, politics, commerce, and education, For Freedoms aims to inject anti-partisan, critical thinking that fine art requires into the political landscape through programming, exhibitions, and public artworks. In 2018, For Freedoms launched the 50 State Initiative: the largest creative collaboration in U.S. history.

Becoming An Image

 archive : Photoville LA

Featuring: CASSILS

Presented by: For Freedoms
  • For Freedoms

Locations

View Location Details Annenberg Space for Photography

Century Park,
2000 Avenue of the Stars Los Angeles,
CA 90067

Location open 24 hours

Images courtesy of Ronald Feldman Gallery.

This website was made possible thanks to the generous support and partnership of Photowings