Naval Cassidy’s performance, the first, followed his proposed design and included an assistant. Cassidy communicated detailed instructions to the audience via printed-text on paper strips drawn under a camera and displayed on a large TV monitor. These messages were mixed with other images produced and captured live. The printed instructions prepared the audience for a series of “demonstrations” on “looking” and “looking away.” These involved objects viewed by camera and direct, as well as objects thrown into the audience. The assistant used a tiny hand-held camera to his eye, for instance, to illustrate the procedure. This image appeared with the image of a clock used as the map of for eye-directions in one of the demonstrations. The audience could see Cassidy monitor his actions on a second screen above his long table of props..
Cassidy is an instant cinema artist who works with groups Stackable Thumb and Naval Cassidy and the Hands of Orlak, a new group that combines live video with live percussion. His video works and performances have traveled the world; most recently in Berlin, Ottowa, Dallas, and Hamburg.
In 1993, Cassidy won a Jerome Foundation grant to create a world wide web site called “The Miserable Racetrack” that was at the time one of the few web based artworks. Recently, he began doing gallery shows and small performances at the Williamsburg Front Room. He calls this chamber video, trying to emphasize the possibilities of small intimate exhibitions/performances for up to four people at a time.
