cat c. haines

Artist Statement

My work as an artist, activist, and academic reflects|refracts my experiences as a white neuroqueer trans woman and dyke. It exists at the intersection of queer and trans theory, history, and practice; community-engaged direct action; and art making as a form of self- and community-care. Through all my work I strive first and foremost to document—with an aspiration towards archiving—my experiences, my body, my lovers, and my community.

My practice is deeply political; and the academic, activist, and artistic practices I undertake are inseparable from, and inform one another. In everything I do, I strive to  embody and forward an ethics of trans liberation, which is more important than ever in the time and place that I practice. Through my work, and like écrituré feminine, I (j/e) create spaces, with love—and with loving force when necessary—for trans women, their bodies, sexualities, and experiences to exist unapologetically. In the past, this has taken the form of eating fire at a protest against Bill 137, “The Parents’ Bill of Rights”, narrating trans pornography in academic writing, creating and exhibiting a monumental re-construction of my genitals in the videogame Minecraft, co-creating Super-8 films about love and care with my partners, and softening intense activist moments and movements through the medium of watercolour painting.