They Say There Are No Spirits

“Since 1995 Theo Jean Cuthand has produced roughly thirty-five video works, often informed by a queer D.I.Y. tradition, and often departing from the first person. In these works, he frequently positions himself with extensive “I am …” statements, yet these statements aren’t meant to construct a static identity—they hold specific ties with a kind of non – linear time that is in contact with Indigenous ancestry as much as it responds to questions of locality. In regard to intersecting vectors of oppression, it is usually presumed that the various aspects of a person’s identity are stable, and that their specific intersections can be analyzed along solid markers of belonging such as class, race, gender, ability, and so forth. These notions become profoundly destabilized when reconsidered through Cuthand’s prolific practice. In their generosity, his video works offer deep insights into the necessarily unfinished business of building, understanding, and negotiating one’s own sense of identity.”—Vika Kirchenbauer