Cassils brings trans visibility to SITE SANTA FE
SITE SANTA FE presents a solo exhibition by the Canadian-born, New York-and Los Angeles-based artist Cassils, whose work contemplates the histories of LGBTQI+ representation, struggle, survival, and empowerment.
“This exhibition employs a myriad of visual tactics,” Cassils said. “From outlines and silhouettes, solar exposures, retinal burns, flashes, and Rorschach devices, I aim to complicate how we define trans* visibility in a moment of heightened violence.”
Curated by Brandee Caoba, “Movements” interrogates the act of recording and preserving performance, questioning how the body is framed, mediated, and ultimately reinterpreted. Through cinematic approaches—whether in the motion of the frame or the stylistic choices that shape it—Movements examines how formal decisions affect our understanding of trans* subjectivity. Here, movement is not only physical, but reverberates socially, politically, and physiologically, shifting between the intimate and the public, the seen and the unseen.
“Through documentation, distortion, and abstraction, Cassils critiques power structures that influence our understanding of trans identities, inviting reflection on how societal norms and expectations shape our biases,” Caoba said. “Movements arrives as we face an urgent reckoning for trans* rights in the United States, where the bodies, identities, and freedoms of trans* individuals are increasingly targeted by systems of oppression and regulated by policies of control.”
“Movements” transposes the live choreography of Cassils’s debut contemporary dance piece, Human Measure (2022), reconceiving that performance as three new immersive installations that are distinct yet interconnected. Drawing upon the structure of a musical score, the exhibition weaves layered auditory experiences into a sweeping soundscape that spans SITE SANTA FE’s architecture.
“Movements” disrupts the process of looking, compelling viewers to become conscious of their gaze. By challenging the assumption that looking is neutral, Cassils opens a space for deeper inquiry, where questions of perception, power, and representation intersect. Through this disruption, the installations invite us to reconsider how we see, revealing the politics embedded in the very act of witnessing.
Etched In Light Billboard Project is part of Cassil’s “Movements” exhibition. Etched in Light channels the affective energies of lie-ins, die-ins, and the historic NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. These billboards embody the presence of trans* and non-binary bodies, capturing moments of intimacy, resilience, and tender connection. The billboards represent details from Cassils’s large-scale cyanotypes, which were created with the National Center for Transgender Equality and over 100 trans* artists at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Transgender Day of Visibility, March 31, 2024.
ABOUT CASSILS
Cassils is a transgender artist who makes their own body the material and protagonist of their performances. Cassils’s art contemplates the histories of LGBTQI+ representation, struggle, survival, empowerment, and systems of care. For Cassils, performance is a form of social sculpture. Drawing from the idea that bodies are formed in relation to forces of power and social expectations, Cassils’s work excavates historical contexts to examine the present moment.
Their work has been supported by the Ford Foundation (2023), the National Creation Fund (2022), a Fleck Residency from the Banff Center for the Arts (2020), a Villa Bellagio Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship (2019), a United States Artist Fellowship (2018), a Guggenheim Fellowship and COLA Grant (2017), and a Creative Capital Award (2015). They have also received the inaugural ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art, a California Community Foundation Grant, the MOTHA (Museum of Transgender Hirstory) award, and numerous Visual Artist Fellowships from the Canada Council of the Arts.
Cassils is an Associate Professor of Sculpture and Integrated Practices in the Fine Arts Department at PRATT Institute.
