Dayna Danger

Dayna Danger is a Two-Spirit Metis-Saulteaux-Polish visual artist that creates unusual and provocative displays.1 Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, they have a Master of Fine Arts in Photography at Concordia University, where they are working towards their doctorate while living in Manitoba. Danger is a performance artist, sculptor, photographer, hide tanner, and bead worker who uses numerous mediums to create their art. Danger’s artworks explore the lines between empowerment and objectification, with prevalent themes of sexuality, gender, intimacy, mixed identities, and feminine or non-conforming bodies. Their work has been showcased in various venues such as the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton and the New Mexico Museum of Art in Sante Fe.2

Big’Uns

Big’Uns is a photographic portrait that Danger first started in 2017, photographing multiple transgender, nonbinary, non-conforming, and female subjects in the nude, barely covered with the antlers and skulls they hold. Danger’s photography commentates on the ways femme and non-conforming people’s sexuality is taken away from them as their bodies are objectified and fetishized in media, juxtaposing such with the inherent violence of sport hunting.3 This photography series is an effort to reclaim power over the sexuality of those that are underrepresented. In 2017, the first image was the cover of the Canadian Art magazine, the image titled “This Work is Not For You” in response to a white male curator who had stated he could not see himself in Danger’s artwork.4

Kinship Masks

An ongoing project that began in 2016, Kinship Masks are a collection of leather BDSM masks that are hand-beaded and tailored for each specific subject. Each mask is uniquely created by Danger and are collaborative projects, with Danger involving other Indigenous people in the beading process. Each mask can take around 300 hours to make. The masks are symbolic of refusal and rejection to be perceived by the patriarchy’s preconceived notions of marginalized bodies.5

Siblings

The Siblings series is a collection of photographs, the first one being created in 2014, that depict pairs of siblings. An exploration of the innate connections and bonds between siblings, Danger explores themes of identity and depicts siblings as souls mirroring each other. 6

Personal Reflection

The discussion of sexuality and kink in art is one that I find very interesting, which drew me to Dayna Danger’s work. The perception of sexuality in modern society is one that is created by the predominant Euro-centric culture in North America, and Danger’s work is a means of challenging the views of sexuality and power. Danger often states the importance of consent in their work, which is especially evident in how they often include themself in their photography, being the one who is wearing the BDSM mask or posing naked with antlers appears as a way to counter objectification of the subjects by being a subject themself.

  1. “Biographies.” Dayna Danger. https://www.daynadanger.com/biographies ↩︎
  2. “Dayna Danger.” Filles Electriques.https://electriques.ca/filles/en/artiste/danger_da. Accessed 20 April 2025. ↩︎
  3. “Big’Uns.” Dayna Danger. https://www.daynadanger.com/d2/big’uns. Accessed 19 April 2025. ↩︎
  4. Zilkha, Gabrielle. “Dayna Danger has a powerful message for gender non-conforming folks: ‘This work is for you’.” CBC, 10 August 2017. https://www.cbc.ca/arts/dayna-danger-has-a-powerful-message-for-gender-non-conforming-folks-this-work-is-for-you-1.4241754. Accessed 20 April 2025. ↩︎
  5. “Kinship Masks.” Dayna Danger. https://www.daynadanger.com/d2/kinship-masks ↩︎
  6. “Siblings.” Dayna Danger. https://www.daynadanger.com/d2/siblings
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