about cat c. haines
Artist Bio
Cat has a Master of Arts in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Regina, and has been a practicing artist for over five years. In 2024, Cat was named the City of Regina Neil Balkwill Artist in Residence, where she produced and presented ‘All We Have,’ a Super 8 documentary about trans people's connection to place in Regina. Cat was also the curator of ‘Towards Liberation,’ an exhibition featuring the work of emerging and established trans women artists in Saskatchewan. In 2021, Cat published ‘Trans Feminist Self Help Zine: Volume 0’ with Gravitron (now in its second printing), and through the CARFAC Saskatchewan Art Writing Mentorship program, is developing ‘Volume 1’ to be published in 2025.
Artist Statement
My work as an artist, activist, and academic reflects and 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. 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. My work, like my body, is trans-disciplinary, spanning analog and process filmmaking, videogame art, watercolour painting, and art writing. 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.