Cassils The Art of Trans Politics
Contexts Apr 02, 2018
On February 22, 2017, the Trump administration rescinded Obama-era federal protections requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms corresponding with their gender identities. This was just one in a series of recent rollbacks in transgender protections, including a ban on transgender military service. Many in the transgender community are understandably on edge.
“We are under siege,” said Cassils, a gender non-conforming, trans masculine visual artist and performer—and a 2017 Guggenheim recipient. Cassils, a Canadian artist now living in Los Angeles, uses a singular name and plural pronouns (they, them, theirs). I spoke with them briefly on the eve of the September 16, 2017 opening of their most recent exhibition, Monumental, at the Ronald Feldman Gallery in New York City.