The Body as Social Sculpture

Through targeted, strictly disciplined strength training, Cassils makes their own body the protagonist of their performances; and contemplates the history(s) of violence, representation, struggle, and survival. Drawing from the idea that bodies are formed in relation to social expectations, Cassils speaks about past works and their starting points, development processes, and historical contexts. Using their own body as artistic material, Cassils processes influences from feminism, body art and hyper-masculine, homoerotic aesthetics. Cassils eludes binary gender categories and understands and embodies transgender not as a crossing from one gender to another, but rather as a continual process of becoming, as a form of embodiment that works in a space of indeterminacy and ambiguity.

CASSILS is a visual artist working in live performance, film, sound, sculpture and photography. Cassils has achieved international recognition for a rigorous engagement with the body as a form of social sculpture. Cassils is the recipient of the USA Artist Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art, Creative Capital Award, and Visual Artist Fellowship from Canada Council of the Arts.