Thirza Cuthand

I started out making work about myself and my identity, a queer, Indigenous, 2 Spirit, Butch boi, Lesbian, mixed-race person. But as I've grown older I have become more interested in the wider communities I belong to, and in making work that addresses the issues my communities face. I still make work fairly rooted in personal stories, but I think I'm more inclined to use fiction to tell truths and protect people close to me. I also am working on a feature that is very much about revenge, something I've not really explored in my short videos until now.

Courtesy of artist, Less Lethal Fetishes, 2019

AGO: What was the inspiration for this artwork or series?
Cuthand: I wasn't sure what to include, so I sent three photos from three works. One is from my Bipolar Journey video game. This game is hand drawn in the style of a zine, and sort of a throw back to the one zine I ever made about my experience as a Mad person in psychiatric wards. In this video game there is one level that is about being in the psych ward, but this image is from the last level where you have to take medications to stay level to reach the hotdog. It's very random where the pills fall from and sometimes it's easy to clear and sometimes difficult. The image of me lounging is from 2 Spirit Dreamcatcher Dot Com (see below for the video). It uses the style of a lavalife commercial to sell a dating website for 2 Spirit people. I wanted to make work about and for the 2 Spirit community that was celebratory and sexy, so often what we talk about is our trauma. But there are a lot of sexy hot 2 Spirit people out there, and we like dating, and making out, and cruising, just like everyone else. I think it's a good idea if we had it in real life, I actually own the domain for 2spriritdreamcatcher.com, but I have never used it. The last image, of me in the gas mask, is from my video Less Lethal Fetishes. I was exploring a few different ideas in one video, ideas around kink and desire, and then leading into the political links to gas masks, and art washing that was happening at the Whitney the year I was in the Whitney Biennial, and then more artwashing I was connected to in a workshop sponsored by a chemical company in a reserve beside Chemical Valley. I was exploring complicity and my own feelings around those things. I think art washing, pink washing, things of that nature are larger subjects which need to be talked about. There is a lot of dirty money out there, I explore this issue further in my video Extractions also. 

AGO: Tell us about a place or a space where you most love making your work?
Cuthand: I moved to Toronto because I couldn't reach my full potential as a filmmaker in Saskatchewan, but when I make films I still often make them about Saskatchewan. It's my home territory, it's where my reservation is, it's where I was born and where I grew up. I have a lot of feelings about Saskatchewan, not all of them positive, but they are inescapable. I also really like the landscape in Saskatchewan, the wide plains, how you can see tornados coming from a distance, the massive thunderstorms. I miss it in a lot of ways but it's a right wing province with a right wing government and the people there really don't seem invested in making it a more humane place. But in many ways the idea of Saskatchewan is still in my mind, and so when I create art I love creating in my home, or coming up with the ideas there anyway, and living in my art like I am still in my home territory. 

AGO: Are you in dialogue with any other artists or creative peers about your practice? If so, how does this dialogue feed your work?
Cuthand: Yeah I would say so! I am writing a feature film based in Saskatchewan, but I have a story editor who has his own practice who gives feedback. I think I also show my work to people before releasing it to the public. I have friends who are curators and artists and we talk about our work a lot. Sometimes I am inspired by my friends' work, or other artists I see in the world. I was raised in the art world because both my parents are contemporary artists, so I was always used to visiting their friends' studios and so on. I think I also just try to see a lot of film and video when I can. During quarantine, I have tried to watch a movie or tv show every day and think a lot about how it was made and what stands out to me and so forth. Last week I watched a bunch of Wong Kar-wai films, and this week I am bingeing Ratched. I really like work that recontextualizes iconic figures. I think just about any kind of art or image or film can help me problem solve issues in my own work.

Courtesy of artist, Bipolar Journey, 2020

Thirza Jean Cuthand (b. 1978 Regina SK) makes short experimental videos and films about sexuality, madness, Queer identity, love, and Indigeneity, which have screened in festivals and galleries internationally. She completed her BFA majoring in Film/Video at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2005, and her MA in Media Production at Ryerson University in 2015. She has performed at Live At The End Of The Century in Vancouver, Performatorium in Regina, and 7a*11d in Toronto. She is a Whitney Biennial 2019 artist. She is Plains Cree/Scots, a member of Little Pine First Nation, and resides in Toronto, Canada.

Follow Thirza @cabbagetownstomper

Check out Thirza Cuthand and Darlene Naponse in conversation with Wanda Nanibush: