Artist
Cassils

Canada / USA
www.cassils.net

Cassils use their hyper muscular body to undermine and interrogate systems of power and control. They view their body as a conceptual sculpture, a critique of the social pressure we feel to make our bodies conform to an aesthetic, gendered and cultural ideal. Their method is multidisciplinary and crosses a spectrum of performance, film, drawing, video, and photography, often employing many of the same strategies used by FLUXUS and guerrilla theatre.

Cassils has exhibited in London, Germany, at the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwigin Vienna, Austria, at Center for Performance Research and Art in General in NYC, at the Yurba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, at USC Center for Feminist Research in Los Angeles and at Art Basel Miami Beach in Florida. They are a founding member of the Los Angeles based performance group The Toxic Titties with whom they have been working with for the past ten years. Recently, Cassils embarked on a series of solo physical performances (Hard Times and Tiresias) informed by Los Angeles body building culture, Greek mythology and experimental film. These performances animate the frozen look of a film still creating an effect that is not theatrical, but cinematic. The audience has the experience of being on set, witnessing a “take.” All aspects of production are present, which reveals how the image is constructed: lighting, special effects, choreography, sound, and highly trained and manicured body.

Cassils © Photo Robin Black.

Performance
Commitment Issues curated by Jess Dobkin

ARTISTS
Alicia Grant (Toronto)
Cassils (Montréal / USA)
Dana Michel (Montréal)
Dominic Johnson (UK)
MC Coble (USA / Sweden)
The Pole Club (Toronto)

Curated by Jess Dobkin and FADO Performance Art Centre

Commitment Issues presents the work of five artists and one collective who use their bodies as primary source material to investigate qualities and dimensions of commitment—to ideas, to performance, to audience and to the artists themselves. Through play, risk, intimacy and sexuality, these artists transcend fixed social, psychological, physical and spiritual notions of commitment.

Further confounding the interplay of fixed notions of commitment, the venue for Commitment Issues is Oasis Aqualounge, home to Toronto’s preeminent swinger’s club. Performance sites will include the outdoor heated swimming pool, steam room, hot tub and locker room. Audiences are invited to stay late and enjoy all of Oasis Aqualounge’s amenities which also include a sauna, two bars and multiple lounges. Locker and towel service provided. Bring your bathing suit or birthday suit. Admission restricted to patrons 19+ years of age.

PROGRAM & EVENTS

Performances
November 16, 2011 @ 7:00pm to 10:00pm
Oasis Aqualounge, 231 Mutual Street, Toronto

Processing: Artists Panel & Reception
November 17, 2011 @ 7:30pm
Studio Theatre, Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse, 4 Glen Morris Street

The panel is co-sponsored by the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama at the University of Toronto and the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto.

© Dominic Johnson, Transmission, 2011. Photo Henry Chan.

Performance Yellow

This fragrance opens us to the question, has the show started? It's winter, the theatre is colder than the street and the room is filled with people and all their winter smells: wet faux leather, down, too much shampoo, and beer breath. The atmosphere is a trickster. Am I late, am I early?

Top Notes

yellow mandarin, mimosa

Middle Notes

honey, chamomile, salt

Base Notes

narcissus, guaiac wood, piss, beer