User:Eleanor Massie/sandbox

Heather Cassils is a performance artist, body builder and personal trainer, born in Canada and now based in Los Angeles, US. Cassils' work uses the body in a sculptural fashion, interrogating feminism, body art, and gay male aesthetics.

Education

In 1997 Cassils received a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, Canada. In 2002 he received an MFA in Art and Integrated Media from California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, US. Cassils has also received diplomas from the National Academy of Sports Medicine, California, in Personal Training (2011) and Corrective Exercise (2013).

Solo Work

In the 20 minute performance Becoming an Image (2013), Cassils punches a block of wet clay, remodelling it through his blows. The piece explores the violence perpetrated against trans and queer bodies, and was performed to an audience in the dark, recorded only by a flash camera.

Cuts: A Traditional Sculpture (2011), was created as a response to a commission by Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE). As inspiration, it drew on Eleanor Antin's Carving: A Traditional Sculpture, 1972 and Lynda Benglis's 1974 Artforum magazine intervention advertisement. Over 23 weeks Cassils followed a body building regime to alter his body's shape, an exercise plan which included consuming the caloric intake of 190-pound male athlete and taking mild steroids. The documentation of the process involved a two-channel video installation, a pin-up, a photographic series and a zine called LadyFace// ManBody.

Collaborations

Along with Clover Leary and Julia Steinmetz, Cassils formed Toxic Titties, a feminist art collective based in Los Angeles. The Toxic Titties are known for their intervention in the work of Vanessa Beecroft. The Titties infiltrated Beecroft's installation VB46 in 2001 and later spoke of their experiences in the performance.

Cassils features in the music video for Lady Gaga's song 'Telephone' from Gaga's 2009 album The Fame Monster.

Awards

In 2013 Cassils won the MOTHA Art Awards (Museum of Transgender Hirstory & Art) for Best Solo Exhibition of 2013.

Websites

• http://www.heathercassils.com/
• http://sculptthebody.com/

Further Reading

• Albracht, Amy, 'Clay: Heather Cassils’ Becoming An Image', C File Magazine (Nov 2013).
• Artsy Editorial, 'Bodybuilder Artist Heather Cassils Channels Lynda Benglis and Eleanor Antin', Artsy Online (Oct 2013).
• Boecker, Susanne, 'Die Starken eines Bundnisses', Kolner Stadanzeiger (July 13).
• Brooke, Kaucyila, ed., Gendered Geographies (Zurich: Hochschule fur Gestalung und Kunst Zurich, 2002).
• Carolin, Louise, 'Inside Story', Diva Magazine, vol 169 (June 2010), pp 43-47.
• Cassils, Heather, Clover Leary, Julia Steinmetz, Behind Enemy Lines: Toxic Titties Infiltrate Vanassa Beecroft, Signs: Journal of Women and Culture in Society, .. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2006).
• ----------------, 'Bashing Binaries -- Along With 2,000 Pounds of Clay', Huffington Post Gay Voices (September 2013).
• Crary, David. 'Jason Collins' Coming Out Breaks New Ground For Gay Rights Trend', Huffington Post (April, 2013).
• Doyle, Jennifer, Sex Objects: Art and the Dialect of Desire (Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 2006)
• Frizzell, Nell, 'Heather Cassils: The Transgender Body Builder Who Attacks Heaps of Clay', The Guardian (Oct 3, 2013).
• Gopnick, Blake, 'The Terminatrix', The Daily Beast (Oct, 2014).
• Greene, Rachel, Internet Art (London: Thames and Hudson, 2004).
• Grey, Kris, 'Cassils: Body of Work', Original Plumbing Magazine (Sep, 2013).
• Henry, Joseph, 'Material Traces: Time and the Gesture in Contemporary Art', Esse Magazine (May, 2013).
• Hoteger, Megan, Re-performance: History as and Experience to Be Had; Los Angeles Goes Live: Performance Art in Southern California 1970-1983; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, Fall 2012 / Volume 15, no. 1
• Huffington Post, 'LGBT Athletes: 27 Players Who Have Come Out Of The Closet', Huffington Post: Gay Voices, April, 2013
• Jankovic, Bojana, 'Review of Becoming An Image at the National Theater Studio', Exeunt Magazine, Exeunt website(April, 2013).
• Jones, Amelia, Material Traces: Process, Matter, and Interrelationality in Contemporary Art Catalogue, Concordia University, Montreal, Spring, 2013
• Jovanovich, Alex, 'Heather Cassils', Artforum Magazine (Dec, 2013).
• Meyer, Richard, and Catherine Lord, Art and Queer Culture (London: Phaidon Press, 2013).
• Mortimer, Dora, 'Live Art Review: Becoming An Image', Diva Magazine (April 2013).
• Raizada, Kristen, 'Interview with the Guerrilla Girls, Dyke Action Machine (DAM!), and the Toxic Titties', NWSA Journal 19, 1 (Spring 2007), 39-58.
• Ross, Christine, The Aesthetics of Disengagement: Contemporary Art and Depression (Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 2006).
• Tang, Joey, 'Art Protest-Toxic Titties', Black Book Magazine (Spring 2004), p 60.
• Timberg, Scott, 'Experimental Art Takes to the Streets', Los Angeles Times (Nov 4), p 5.
• Yablonsky, Linda, 'California Dreamin', Artfourm Magazine (October 7, 2011).