Ruth Cuthand

Ruth Cuthand (born 1954) is a Canadian artist of Plains Cree and Scottish ancestry.[1] She is widely considered an influential feminist artist of the Canadian prairies, and is lauded for her unflinching interpretation of racism and colonialism.[2] Her work challenges mainstream perspectives on colonialism and the relationships between “settlers” and Natives in a practice marked by political invective, humour, and a deliberate crudeness of style.[3]

Ruth Cuthand
Born
Shirley Ruth Cuthand

1954
Treaty 6 Land near
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada
NationalityLittle Pine First Nation
EducationUniversity of Saskatchewan
Known formultimedia, beadwork, printmaking, drawing
Websitehttp://www.ruthcuthand.ca/

Early life

Born on Treaty 6 Land, near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Cuthand is a member of Little Pine First Nation,[4] but spent most of her childhood in Cardston, Alberta near the Blood Reserve, where she met artist Gerald Tailfeathers at the age of 8, which compelled her to pursue a career as an artist.[5][6]

Cuthand earned a BFA from the University of Saskatchewan in 1983, and a MFA, also from the University of Saskatchewan in 1992. In the period between her degree programs, Cuthand did some post-graduate work at the University of Montana in 1985.[5] During her education, she worked in printmaking, but later switched to painting.[5] Cuthand taught art and art history at the First Nations University of Canada, and University of Regina. She also taught a variety of studio courses for over twenty years.[4]

Career

In 1990, Cuthand's first solo exhibition, titled “S. Ruth Cuthand: The Trace of Ghost Dance,” was held at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan. The show featured painted shirts and dresses that were grounded in a movement among Plains First Nations groups in the 19th century known as the Ghost Dance Religion. Cuthand used them to express nonviolent resistance to Imperialism.

Her travelling retrospective exhibition, BACK TALK (works 1983–2009), was exhibited at galleries across Canada, including the Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon) in 2011, the Confederation Centre Art Gallery (Charlottetown, PEI) in 2012, Mount Saint Vincent Gallery (Halifax, NS) and at Plug In ICA (Winnipeg) in 2014. The bilingual (Cree/English) exhibition catalogue[7] that accompanied the exhibition was shortlisted for the 2013 Saskatchewan Book Awards, featuring essays by contemporary curators, including Joan Borsa and Lee-Ann Martin.[8] In 2016, she was part of a group show at Wanuskewin Heritage Park, Cardston, Alberta, 1959–1967.

Since 2006, Cuthand has been adding pieces to a series titled Trading. This series examines pandemics, disease, and colonialism using colourful beaded depictions of microscope images of bacteria and viruses such as influenza, bubonic plague, measles, smallpox, typhus, cholera, scarlet fever, diphtheria, chicken pox, yellow fever, and whooping cough.[9] Cuthand pushed her practice in a new direction by expanding on concepts found in her Trading Series (2009).The glass-bead pathogens utilized in that series have led to a new body of work related to unsafe water conditions found on First Nations reserves. Don't Drink, Don't Breathe, at the Mann Art Gallery in Prince Albert, SK in 2015 brings together an installation of beaded pathogens found in water supplies that the artist suspends in glasses filled with resin that give the impression of glasses of water. An exhibition in March 2016 in Saskatoon further articulates this artistic direction that, like her earlier body of work, challenges colonial issues in Canada.[10] A version of this work is in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario.[11] In 2019 her beaded work was included in ÀbadakoneIContinuous FireIFeu continuel, an exhibition of contemporary international indigenous art at the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa).

After the Trading series, Cuthand explored similar themes in her two following collections: Reserving and Surviving. In 2020 she added several versions of the work "Surviving COVID-19" to the collection, some which features beads affixed to a white face mask representing the microscopic images of the COVID-19 virus.[12][13][14] The pieces build on previous themes including the impact of pandemics and disease on Indigenous communities.[15]

Cuthand lives and works in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Themes

Cuthand incorporates intense and provocative pieces exploring themes of colonialism, stereotyping, residential school abuse, and institutionalized racism. One example of this is her work Trading, which uses bead work to depict the viruses carried by European traders into First Nation communities.[8] She does not shy away from the colonialist and racist themes in her work, quoted in Windspeaker in 1993: "Being an Indian, you're stereotyped. We're sort of these hard-working women who are usually fat and we're angry. So I stereotyped the white liberals as women with long pointy noses, pointy shoes and long black fingernails."[16]

Awards

Cuthand was honoured with the Saskatchewan Artist Award at the Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Awards in 2013.[17] In 2016, she was honoured as a 2016 Arts & Science Alumni of Influence at the University of Saskatchewan. In 2020, she was awarded a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.[18]

Exhibitions

She has been presented in group and solo exhibitions at a number of galleries, including at the Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon), Thunder Bay Art Gallery (Thunder Bay), and AKA Gallery (Saskatoon), and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa). Her work is represented in collections at the MacKenzie Art Gallery (Regina), Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon), Laurentian University Museum, the Saskatchewan Arts Board,[5] the Indigenous Art Centre at the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs (Ottawa), and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa). Cuthand has also curated works for several galleries across Canada, including Mediating Violence for Tribe, Inc. and AKA Gallery in 2002,[4] and served on peer juries from the Canada Council and the Saskatchewan Arts Board.[4]

Solo Exhibitions

References
  1. "The GALLERY / art placement inc". www.artplacement.com. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  2. Klassen, Lois (Mar–May 2015). "Who Counts? A Feminist Throwdown". Border Crossings.
  3. "RUTH CUTHAND: BACK TALK (Works 1983–2009) – Mendel Art Gallery". www.mendel.ca. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  4. Thompson, Christian (2004). Saskatchewan First Nations: Lives Past and Present. Regina, Saskatchewan: Canadian Plains Research Center. pp. 46–47. ISBN 9780889771611.
  5. Squareflo.com. "Saskatchewan NAC Artists | Ruth Cuthand". www.sknac.ca. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  6. "Artist uses interesting methods to make her point | Windspeaker – AMMSA: Indigenous news, issues and culture". www.ammsa.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  7. Borsa, Joan (2012). Back Talk. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: Mendel Art Gallery. ISBN 9781896359779.
  8. Cataldo, Sabrina. "Ruth Cuthand – Saskatchewan Arts Board". artsboard.sk.ca. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  9. "Beaded Images of Disease Explore the Impact of Colonial Trade". Colossal. 2019-05-13. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  10. "DC3 Art Projects".
  11. "Don't Breathe, Don't Drink". Art Gallery of Ontario. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  12. "Plains Cree artist Ruth Cuthand adds coronavirus to her collection of beaded diseases". Alumni and Friends. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  13. Milroy, Sarah. "Canadian Art in the Time of Coronavirus". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  14. "SNEAK PEEK: Ruth Cuthand". Galleries West. 2020-07-26. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  15. Cuth, Ruth. "Cuthand adds beaded image of coronavirus to art series". www.eaglefeathernews.com. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  16. "Artist's perspective contemporary, political | Windspeaker – AMMSA: Indigenous news, issues and culture". www.ammsa.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  17. "Ruth Cuthand, Andrew Salgado Win Sask. Art Prizes – Canadian Art". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  18. The Canadian Press. "Kenneth Lum, Deanna Bowen among winners of $25K Governor General's art awards Social Sharing". CBC News. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  19. "Truck - Contemporary Art in Calgary". www.truck.ca. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  20. "Through the artist's eye: Empathy and Ruth Cuthand's paintings". Saskatoon StarPhoenix. 2016-01-25. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  21. "Ruth Cuthand". Remai Modern. Retrieved 2020-12-04.

Sources
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