performance
cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other
louisa balzac, the straightest cowboy on this side of the north saskatchewan river
The photo series Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other is rooted in personal experience growing up in Alberta, supported by the writing of scholars such as Kimberly A. Williams, and inspired by the work of Blackfoot artists Adrian Stimson and Terrance Houle. However, David’s performance persona, Louisa Balzac, does not strive to represent the work of these artists. Instead, David hopes to provide an example of settler engagement with Indigenous artists and highlight the relevance of their work to colonial society. David believes that the hesitance of non-indigenous people to engage with contemporary Indigenous art, although often originating from a place of respect, ultimately marginalizes Indigenous voices, limiting their audience and denying them access to critique.
This project uses humour and queerness to make fun of Albertan masculinity: the cowboy. It is essential to note that this project is not concerned with real “cowboys,” ranchers and rodeo athletes. In contrast, Louisa critiques the way settlers use the cowboy as a symbol, a costume to wear. The public performance piece, documented through a series of photographs, is intended to offer a new vantage point on colonial narratives, make you laugh, and aggravate the fragile egos of Albertan men.
In present-day Alberta, cowboy culture is celebrated by large institutions and everyday citizens in a way that perpetuates harmful colonial ideas. Stampede: Misogyny, White Supremacy, and Settler Colonialism by feminist scholar Kimberly A. Williams lays a foundation for understanding cowboy culture as settler-colonial. Through her writing, Williams asks who gets to be a part of Alberta’s imagined western identity. The book focuses on the Calgary Stampede, but Williams’ conclusions have implications for Alberta’s larger society. She explains that the Calgary Stampede and broader cowboy culture feed into a colonial narrative that positions Alberta as “an open, vast, and ‘empty’ land just waiting to be conquered by the heroic cowboy.”And who is this heroic cowboy? Kimberly examines the cultural material surrounding the Calgary Stampede in search of answers. She finds that the type of cowboy celebrated by Calgarians during the ten-day stampede is usually white, cis, heterosexual, hypermasculine, and funded by oil companies. Stampede is an essential piece of literature for this project, illustrating how cowboys are frequently used to support ongoing colonial processes in Alberta.
Adrian Stimson, a member of the Siksika Nation, asks questions similar to Williams' about who is included in cowboy culture through his performance persona, Buffalo Boy. Buffalo Boy is what he calls a hybridization of the Indian, the cowboy, the shaman, and the Two-Spirit being. A lecture at the University of Toronto offers insights into Buffalo Boy's origins and cowboy identity. Stimson states that while doing his Master’s at the University of Saskatchewan, he researched Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows, examining the spectacle, conquest narratives, inclusion and exclusion, and Indigenous participation. It is implied that Buffalo Boy emerged through these questions.
Buffalo Boy uses queer imagery and humour to critique the cowboy. Border Crossing Magazine’s 2022 "Performing at the Edge" interview with Siksika artist Adrian Stimson offers insights into the cowboy as a tool for colonial critique. The interviewer’s questions highlight Stimson’s heritage, explaining that his lineage “includes an Indian cowboy who performed in the Calgary Stampede.” Stimson’s family history influences his current work and reiterates that the cowboy does not belong only to white settlers. Stimson continues explaining that Buffalo Boy talks back to the colonial project using queerness and humour. He adds, “I thought about my grandfather as an Indian cowboy and pushing back against the history of machoism.” Buffalo Boy is a queer cowboy who mocks the idealized settler cowboy.
Terrance Houle, a member of the Kainai Nation, is another Indigenous artist known for using cowboy imagery to critique colonial processes. An essay by Anthony Kiednl titled “Legend of the Fall” explores Houle’s work’s relation to the Hollywood cowboy. Kiendl dissects Terrance Houle’s video Landscape, which features a figure wearing an Indigenous headdress running through the prairie, only to be seemingly shot down by a young cowgirl. Kiendl explains that Houle also plays with Hollywood stereotypes. In particular, the “Cowboy vs Indian” trope glamorizes colonial domination. Kiendl continues to explain that Landscape's physical comedy critiques the implied power dynamics. He says it best in the essay's conclusion: "While the cowboy does ride off into the sunset, there is a revised order to things — a reassessment of values and meanings — suggesting that we reconsider who gets the last laugh.”
Louisa Balzac, the straightest cowboy on this side of the North Saskatchewan River, follows in the footsteps of Buffalo Boy and Terrance Houle, queering the cowboy and challenging colonial narratives.
Photography by Serejane Walls. Thank you to Cassidy and Fiona for lending me the props. Thank you, Erin Sutherland, for your guidance and support.
David Ivanchikov (he/him) is a Queer and Jewish settler artist born and raised in Treaty 6 territory in Edmonton, Alberta, home to many diverse Indigenous peoples, including the Cree, Dene, Blackfoot, Saulteaux, Nakota Sioux, Inuit, and Métis. His parents moved to Edmonton from Moscow in 2001. Their history is in Eastern Europe, although Jews were always visitors. This project concerns identity, and David would like to acknowledge that the stories we tell about place, belonging, and land are inherently political.
Bibliography
Kiendl, Anthony. “Legends of the Fall.” Givn’r. Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art and the Art Gallery of York University, 2012. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat03710a&AN=alb.6035005&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Stimson, Adrian. “About.” Adrian Stimson. Accessed March 31, 2025. https://adrianstimson.com/about-adrian/
Stimson, Adrian. “Performing at the Edge: An Interview with Adrian Stimson.” By Robert Enright. Border Crossings 41, no. 3 (March 2023): 114-25. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=162657973&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Stimson, Adrian. “The life and times of Buffalo Boy with Adrian Stimson.” UofTDaniels. September 27, 2018. YouTube Video, 1:19:33. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ-KlmXcG9o.
Williams, Kimberly A. Stampede: Misogyny, White Supremacy, and Settler Colonialism. Fernwood Publishing, 2021. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat03710a&AN=alb.9876184&sit