Heather Cassils’ ‘Becoming an Image’ reflective of Queer Theory and the Gender Binary

Cassils, a transgender bodybuilder from Montreal, states that “I resist the idea that you have to live as a man or as a woman;” immediately indicating that he resists the gender binary while referencing the ideologies of queer theory of which “challenges the cultural acceptance of heterosexuality as the only natural and normal sexual identity” (2) and the counteraction of the “expectation that two sexes exist” (2). This is especially evident in Cassils’ performance piece ‘Becoming an Image’ of which he explores the “senseless acts of violence against trans and queer bodies beyond the historical lens” (1) through the violent manipulation of a tonne clay block through the artist’s anatomically female body.

“It is with sweat, blood and sinew that I construct a visual critique and discourse around physical and gender ideologies and histories” (3) says Cassils of his piece. What the audience is allowed to see of his performance is almost a “series of “live” photographs” (1) due to the surroundings of the performance being totally dark; illuminated by “intermittent flashes of camera” (1). It could be interpreted that this visual stimulation could overwhelm the senses of the audience, imposing upon them the harsh realities of the LGBTQ+ community and the refusal to conform to the gender binary.

Bibliography:

• https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/03/heather-cassils-transgender-bodybuilder-artist Frizzell, Nell for The Guardian, October 2013, ‘Heather Cassils: The transgender bodybuilder who attacks heaps of clay’, accessed 22 November 2017
• Queer Theory. By: Cornstock, Nancy W., Salem Press Encyclopaedia, 2015.
• http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/22646/1/the-artists-subverting-the-gender-binary Yeung, Peter, Dazed, November 2014, ‘The Artists Subverting the Gender Binary’, accessed 23 November 2017