Lieu d’exposition
/ Exhibition place
Biography
Dayna Danger (they/them) is a Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer, Métis-Saulteaux-Polish, visual artist, hide tanner, drummer, and beadworker. Danger’s art practice is an act of reclaiming space and power over society’s projections of sexualities and representation. This transpires in Danger’s art by their intentionally large-scale images that place importance on women-identified, Two-Spirit, transgender, and non-binary people. Their art uses symbolic references to kink communities to critically interrogate visibility and rejection. Danger centers Kin and practicing consent to build artworks that create a suspension of reality wherein complex dynamics of sexuality, gender, and power are exchanged.
Approach and works on display
The End of the World (2022)
End of the World is a digital print that is part of ongoing portraits that I take of my kin. In this portrait, Alex oversees the kisiskāciwani-sīpiy, “swift flowing river” or North Saskatchewan River. When we first met, we connected through the grapevine. Alex was referred to me by Tracy Bear, their professor at the University of Alberta. I speak of these names because I want to honour all those who build a network of kinship connections, picking medicine and creating art together.
While visiting Amiskwaciy Waskahikan, we carried my 4×5 film camera onto a concrete foundation where an abandoned lookout once stood. In the photo, Alex is wearing her moccasins and an American Apparel lace bodysuit. I wanted to capture the courage and beauty within her as she stepped out onto the edge of the valley surrounded by tranquillity. Alex’s long rubber extensions give her a sense of connectedness to the crumbling concrete beneath her feet, her gaze aligning with the horizon. Yet the photo is more than that – it is about sharing experiences and building connections.
As stated by Arin Fay, curator at Touchtsones Musem, “[…] End of the World evokes a feeling of perfection that is usually the purview of landscape alone, […] but here the humanity elevates these vistas, making both more powerful by the presence of the other. They share reverence for the Land and non-human relatives by conveying the interconnectedness of rivers, stones, pathways, and shores, uniting their forms of relationality through these entities.”