Dayna Danger

Dayna Danger is a Two-Spirit/queer, hard femme, Métis/Saulteaux/Polish visual artist. Danger was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Treaty 1 territory, and now resides in Tio'tiá:ke (Montréal). Danger's work explores the relationships between representation, objectification, and empowerment. They also engage with themes of intimacy, gender, sexuality, BDSM, kink, and mixed identities. Danger's artwork from their Big'Uns series was on the front cover of the Summer 2017 Canadian Art Magazine issue. A white male curator once commented that he "could not see himself" in Danger's art, and Danger's response was that "his work is not for you." Later, when Danger's photo from Big'Uns was made the cover of the issue, the editor's letter for the issue was titled "This Work Is Not For You". Collaboration and creating work for underrepresented groups are among Danger's major focuses. Danger uses singular they/them pronouns.

Education Danger graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from The University of Manitoba's School of art in 2010. Danger's feminist and Indigenous activist work often shares the same themes as their art. Through their work, they aim to empower and create space for those who are largely excluded from media or who are misrepresented, with a focus on Indigenous peoples and those who identify as 2Spirit, queer, trans, and non-binary. Danger states: "Space is really important to Indigenous people. If we're literally waiting to get our land back, maybe I can try at least to claim space in other ways." They have collaborated with Indigenous artists and communities to complete various projects.

Danger acts as a board member for the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective/Collectif des commissaires autochthones (ACC/CCA), a non-profit organization founded by Indigenous curators. Through their work with the ACC, Danger promotes and furthers the goal of the organization to support and connect Indigenous curators, artists, writers, academics, and professionals. Another major theme is exploring and deconstructing relationships of subjectivity and power, often to create space "for people traditionally excluded from galleries and mainstream media to represent them in new ways". Danger uses photography, video, performance, and beading in their art practice. Unlike many artists, Danger likes to keep some of their projects ongoing, allowing for more voices and volunteers in their work. They explain, "Big 'Uns is still ongoing—as long as there's a rack and someone who's willing to pose with the rack, I will continue to do Big'Uns. There are over 60 individuals who are in that work now, by volunteering." Collaboration is key to their art, as their projects rely on building relationships and community between the artist and the subjects. "If I'm having these feelings, maybe other folks are having these experiences" Danger explains, "One experience you have may be very well felt by others, and you may not even know it."

Bad Girls (2010) Exhibited at the Gallery of Student Art at the University of Manitoba in 2010, Bad Girls is a photo series inspired by "scandalous and intriguing women throughout history." Danger takes the Renaissance genre of historical paintings and sexualizes them, reworking them in a modern light to empower, and give control to, the female subject. As Danger grew up Catholic, this project explores what women "should be" doing, and redefines what that looks like: redefining the term "bad girl". According to Danger's website, it provided "a time to process both the pain and love shared between sisters, and a chance to forge a different future for each other." The series explores themes of reconnection, love, baggage, and sisterly bonds. The photographs feature women rubbed in baby oil with antlers strapped onto their sexual parts. According to Danger's website, the antlers "and the tension that they cause, allude to the many factors that women must contend with in order to have healthy relationships, positive self-image, and, of course, sexual relationships. For us these factors include the first-hand experience and/or the intergenerational effects of residential schooling, sexual abuse, and the unrealistic portrayal of our bodies by the media." Danger facilitates this work through a variety of mediums, including advocacy, community-building, and artwork. This work hinges on converting existing spaces, such as BDSM, porn, and fashion, into areas which empower Two-Spirited, Queer, and gender variant peoples.

BDSM, kink, and consent in reclaiming space Danger specifically cites here interest in BDSM (Bondage/Domination, Dominance/Submission, Sadism/Masochism) as a cite for power exchange. For Danger, BDSM opens a dialogue which could be characterized as limited within more "traditional" spaces which might otherwise marginalize gender variant, Indigenous-Queer, Two-Spirited, and Trans peoples. In opening this dialogue, Danger deconstructs tropes of BDSM being limited to non-Indigenous peoples, and, instead, promotes the ability for BDSM to promote the beauty of Indigenous-Queer peoples. This work negotiates the line of power and objectification, while relying on an inherent consent model in BDSM which promotes the positive sexual agency of engaging parties. They explore BDSM and kink specifically through leather and beaded works, "as a space for healing colonial trauma". Danger has produced a series of masks that resemble BDSM gear but are beaded in a traditional Indigenous style. The practice of beading the masks takes up to 100 hours and was inspired by Danger's mother who made cultural art as well.

Exhibits Various exhibits Urban Shaman, Winnipeg, MB

Nos Territoires/Indian Land Nos Territoires/Indian Land was exhibited September 15, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, and included several performance pieces by Indigenous artists. Danger wore one of their masks and performed a purification ceremony with traditional herbs. It was a multi-artist exhibit featuring Lacie Burning, Jade Nasogaluak Carpenter and Dayna Danger. The multi-artist exhibit featured ten Indigenous artists: David Garneau, Caroline Monnet, Dayna Danger, Sonny Assu, Skawennati, Natalie Ball, Leonard Getinthecar, Nep Sidhu, Kent Monkman and Jessie Ray Short. The multi-artist exhibit featured five Two-Spirit artists: Kent Monkman, Dayna Danger, Fallon Simard, Preston Buffalo and Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour. The multi-artist exhibit featured Dayna Danger, Hannah Claus, Maria Ezcurra, Sandeel johal, Kama La Mackerel and Nadia Myre. The curators Lori Beavis, Maria Ezcurra and Natasha Reid explored addressing sexual violence in relation to the body through the exhibit's displayed works. It featured Danger's BDSM leather beaded fetish masks.

Sovereign Acts II "Sovereign Acts II" was exhibited from July 21 to April 1, 2017, Concordia University's Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery in Montreal, Quebec. The multi-artist exhibit featured Rebecca Belmore, Lori Blondeau, Dayna Danger, Shelley Niro, Adrian Stimson, Jeff Thomas, Robert Houle and James Luna. The multi-artist exhibit featured Eleni Bagaki, Maya Ben David and Tobias Williams, Maisie Cousins, Dayna Danger, Erika DeFreitas, Danièle Dennie, Lotte Meret Effinger, Doreen Garner, Talia Shipman, Molly Soda, Ambera Wellmann and Zhu Tian. The organization works in solidarity with broader social movements, other social justice organizations, and community leaders to promote gender self-determination, sovereignty of bodies, pro-agency employment, and self-love. Danger's aim of supporting Two-Spirit and Queer Indigenous peoples has inspired the creation Two-Spirit Healing Drum program at the Centre for Gender Advocacy. This activism supports the provision of space for Two-Spirit and Queer Indigenous peoples not only within a greater Tio'tia:ke context, but within Indigenous communities themselves.

Visibility and existing Danger's visibility and existing advocacy work emphasizes how the recognition identity and body support empowerment of individuals and community. A significant amount of Danger's visibility and existing work addresses the importance of Indigenous peoples claiming space to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their communities.

Refusal Direct action that reflects messages of refusal are essential to Danger. For Danger, refusal is about the revitalization, the protection and the accessibility ceremony. The campaign maintains reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities and organizations in order to foster a safer environment for Indigenous people. The campaign continues to confront issues of systemic racism, sexisms, classism and negligence that exist within media platforms, the justice system and police forces. Missing Justice has organized various events, including MMIWGTS Vigils that were held on October 4, 2019, and February 14, 2020. Danger always centres community throughout all of their advocacy work by arguing, "[they] can't do this work without community."