Queer Artist Spotlight: Cyril Chen

What’s your story?

I consider my career still emerging and I am still finding where I kinda want to be. I just finished my degree in animation at Sheridan College and I am interested in storytelling and education. I am going into a Master’s program in the fall at McMasters in Communications and new media. I am passionate about sharing knowledge, especially in transgender history and digital media, as well as comics and story art. I am also interested in comedy and sharing stories that aren’t conventionally told, and exploring the standard between palatable stuff versus why is that the set-out standard, and it’s usually CIS white men setting the standards in the industry and I want to challenge that, while also see how I can retain value in the same way. I am interested in exploring that in my career.

What do you find most important about the work that your creating?

I think it’s that I want to tell stories that aren’t conventional, I don't know if I can say what the most important thing that I am doing is. I am drawn to making things that are expected from an audience and it’s mostly for niche topics but I think it is also important to try to be universal. Currently what I think is most important to my work is that I am trying to share things that are seldom thought about historically. The way art is shared is catered toward certain people that are probably not LGBTQ+.

Can you tell me about your short film “Transfusion”?

I am working on a short animated film that and it's close to home for my identity, but also for my colleagues and friends that share their stories around it. It's about Christianity and how that influences politics and how trans people are seen in the US and across parts of Canada. I didn’t set out to make it a political film, but it can be seen as one if you’re not used to seeing something that is more real, and I'm trying to work with comedy a bit. This film is a practice for me, later on, I would like to refine my storytelling and do more research on how audiences in real life act to it. I’m really excited for this film, I am working with really talented voice actors who are mainly based in Saskatchewan, and some in Montreal. This film is also showing at a festival in Saskatoon called Homegrown on July 27th. It’s premiering alongside a lot of talented local filmmakers from Saskatchewan. It’s still not completely finished, I am refining it a bit, but I have started sharing it with some film festivals in its current state. The film is specific to what the church scene has been like in some small towns or cities from Saskatchewan, which I think is very different from what the churches are like in the Toronto area where they are a bit more progressive and diverse. My sister and I would attend church and go to Sunday school or the teen youth group so church was one way I found a community for me growing up in Regina since both of my parents are working and out of the house a lot. One of my collaborators that voiced one of the characters commented that the churches in southern Saskatchewan are similar to the South States and Baptist churches. The church that I grew up with had some homophobic or transphobic types of services which was really expected, but some people had very different opinions that caused friction. Fortunately, I am no longer part of that anymore.

What do you want people to take away from your artwork?

Currently, the film I’m working on, I hope it resonates well with the community that it is designated for, for queer, LGBTQ+ who had those experiences and stories from being in church. I have had some positive feedback with the small audience I’ve shown it to that is part of the queer community, I'm hoping it continues to resonate well with queer people, but I am also trying not to cater to CIS white men cause it seems like there are two reactions I am getting from it: either they are confused or they get it spot on. It’s interesting to me and as I continue to make different things I will keep that in the back of my mind. I will try to make things that are a bit unconventional but also recognize that not everyone is going to get it. There’s this idea about being incomprehensible if you’re an artist whose ethnicity or identity is not easily plausible for some people, your art on its own might be incomprehensible, I think there is beauty to that, that only specific people can get it.

How does your identity influence your art practise?

There’s a meme in the comic or animation world where if you’re an independent artist and you're making a character and if it is a self-insert and putting yourself into that character fully. I think part of myself is always going to be in the ink. For the short film, I put more of myself into it than I would usually, but it really depends on the type of project that I am working on. This short film is pretty close to home but parts of my intuition of what I’ve experienced over the past year, if I had a doubt if my film was too crazy or insulting to someone like priests, like clockwork when I had that doubt I would get a News notification about a case about corruption surrounding the church in a small town or even Regina with priests abusing their power or shady things that they’ve done. I feel like that was always a sign for me to push and publish this film, even though it will offend people who are ‘conservative’ or anti-trans. It’s a push and pull, sometimes I make something that has a lot of my identity in it, and to not cause burnout I will make other things that are more light with not as much of me in it.

What role does the artist have in Regina’s community?

I’m not sure I can answer this because I am not involved in the community a lot, but in general, artists can help make the community more vibrant and creative. The artist's role in society really depends on the artists themselves, but overall I think that art can both be something that adds more colour to a physical space for other people but can challenge people a bit to address the standard ways of how we fit in the world overall. There are different ways artists can fit in Regina, you can try to make something that challenges, but you don't have to do that. You can make art for the sake of it. There are quite a lot of local organizations that you can work with like Neutral Ground is great for supporting emerging and mid-career practices. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with them, so it really depends on what community the artists want to be a part of. Overall, I think if you are kind then you can work with the community.

What is your dream project?

I would like to publish a comic book or graphic novel someday that has illustrations I made in it, and it would probably be based on research on transgender history. I think the book overall would be fiction but also have added in details of history and research. That is something I would be interested in doing in ten years or so.