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<\/a>Becoming an Image<\/i> was initially made as a site-specific work in 2012 for the ONE Archives Foundation in Los Angeles, the oldest active LGBTQ organization in the US. Cassils was invited to fill the missing trans representation in the archives.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike most archives, this was filled with the work, in this case, of dead gay white guys,\u201d Cassils says. \u201cSo, looking through the archives, they realized there really was not much representation.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the start of the project, Cassils approached representation from a critical standpoint and wanted to speak to the ways in which certain histories were given visibility by being included in the archives while others were left in the dark. Playing with the idea of \u201cvisible\u201d and \u201cinvisible,\u201d they converted the ONE Archives into a total black-out chamber\u2014once in the space, the audience was plunged into total darkness. Cassils and a photographer then came into the room, and Cassils attacked, with full force, a 2,000-pound mass of clay in the middle of the room that neither the artist nor the audience could see. The only moments in which the audience and the artist were able to see what was happening was when the photographer took photos with a flash.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou become so aware of all of the negative moments\u2014by that I mean all the moments we are not receiving visual stimulus and yet you are aware that something is occurring,\u201d says Cassils. \u201cSo, it\u2019s speaking to all the histories and statistics and possible lived experiences, in this, outside of the realm of documentation. And, so, yes, it is speaking about trans identity, and yes, it\u2019s speaking about this sort of silent violence against trans identity, but it\u2019s also speaking about whose histories are deemed important and whose are not, essentially; whose are captured and whose are not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cassils says that art can take on a very important role in the United States today.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the US political climate that I live in, to perform a piece like [Becoming an Image<\/i>] after the election here, it\u2019s an act of defiance, an act of resilience, and an act of resistance. And it\u2019s an act of struggle, but it\u2019s also an act of self-making, it\u2019s an act of agency. And it\u2019s also calling out these larger power structures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becoming an Image
\n<\/i>7:30 pm Wednesday, March 7
\nFree, Room 150,
\nUVic Visual Arts Building
\nuvic.ca\/events<\/a><\/p>\n