Artwork
Becoming an Image
Becoming an Image is a photographic photography by Cassils. It dates from 2019 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
Cassils made Becoming an Image, a 2019 photograph. The work started in 2012 as a live performance. In a dark room, Cassils beats a clay block the size of their body. Each hit lights up with a camera flash.
The performance changes every time. New photos are made from each live act. A wallpaper now shows the audience watching.
Look up Cassils next.
Overview
The work Becoming an Image (2019) by Cassils is a performance-based artwork captured through large-scale color photographs, created during a live event in a darkened space lit only by camera flashes. In the performance, Cassils strikes a clay block roughly the size of their body, and recent versions incorporate wallpaper displaying the audience’s reactions, reflecting collective engagement or discomfort. Some iterations of the photographs have been cast in bronze as sculptures titled The Resilience of the 20%, referencing a 20% global increase in murders of transgender people in 2012.
The bronze casts have also been used in Monument Push (2017), where they were physically moved through public spaces in Omaha, Nebraska, linking sites of LGBTQ trauma and resilience.
Artist & collection
Artist
Cassils makes photographs that push bodies and light into raw shapes. The 2019 photograph Becoming an Image is a single black-and-white print, lit from one side so the figure looks carved out of darkness. It belongs to…
