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.
In the live performance Becoming an Image, Cassils unleashes an attack on a 2000 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.