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Eastern Edge Gallery · 72 Harbour Drive, St. John’s, NL, Canada · 709 739 1882


Current Exhibitions

Big’Uns

Dayna Danger

Main Gallery

Dayna Danger’s monumental series Big’Uns is an ongoing photographic portrait series that explores the reclaiming of sexuality and bodies in a cultural climate in which women, Trans, and gender non-conforming people often lack power over their own sexualities. The series co-opts the aesthetics of high fashion magazines, music videos, mainstream pornography, and hunting magazines to produce high-octane, self-possessed, and confrontational depictions of marginalized sexualities and gender identities.

Collaboratively produced by Danger and the photographed individuals, the series mines a wide variety of media that often serve to disempower and engender violence against women, Trans, and gender non-conforming folks. The title Big’Uns finds roots in sport hunting, which has widely replaced hunting for sustenance. In the discourse of sport hunting we encounter “the sexualization of animals, “women,” and weapons, as if the three are interchangeable sexual bodies in narratives of traditional masculinity.” (Animals, Women, and Weapons: Blurred Sexual Boundaries in the Discourse of Sport Hunting, 2004) The slang applied in sport hunting to rack size is a common colloquialism which is applied when fetishizing breasts. In their portraits, these individuals wear antlers as strap ons, a blatant and unapologetic rebuttal to the violence imposed by a culture of colonialism and toxic masculinity.

“The antlers and the tension that they cause, allude to the many factors that we 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. By repossessing the antlers in this way, we aim to demonstrate a reclaiming of power for  women, Trans and gender non-conforming people and how we choose to be seen.” – Dayna Danger

Dayna Danger is a visual artist, organizer and drummer. Danger holds a MFA in Photography from Concordia University. Through utilizing the processes of photography, sculpture, performance and video, Danger creates works and environments that question the line between empowerment and objectification by claiming the space with their larger than life works. Ongoing works exploring BDSM and beaded leather fetish masks negotiate the complicated dynamics of sexuality, gender and power in a consensual and feminist manner. Danger has exhibited their work nationally and internationally in such venues as Art gallery of Alberta, Edmonton AB; Urban Shaman, Winnipeg, MB; Warren G Flowers Art Gallery, Montreal; dc3 Projects, Edmonton; Roundhouse, Vancouver; Art Mur, Berlin; and the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe. Danger has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts and at Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art. Danger currently serves as a board member of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective (ACC/CCA). Danger is an Artist in Residence through Initiatives for Indigenous Futures at AbTeC. Danger is a 2Spirit, Métis – Anishinaabe(Saulteaux) – Polish, hard femme who was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Treaty 1 territory, homeland of the Métis.

 

rOGUE:

Diary of a e’pite’ji’j: hypervigilant love

Jude Benoit

Nostalgic uncertainty
De ja vu wrapped up in braid ribbons and seaweed.
Hot salty youthful excitement always ending in a familiar panic.
Each snapshot replaced with another.
From childhood through youth connected by a
hypervigilant kind of love.

Diary of a e’pite’ji’j: hypervigilant love is a freeze-frame on items nostalgic to Benoit’s youth. Discarded fishing nets, garbage bags, washed up refuse hang together, caught in a net, a wave suspended in time. Floating amongst them are photos of places, some recognizable, many ambiguous. The photos drifting on the current are records of exact locations of moments of fear and panic caused by being alone with a person. Whether the feeling of imminent danger was realized or not, the fear has created a life of constant hypervigilance. The cameras that produced the images reflect the feeling: disposable. Though unique to Benoit’s experiences, they hope these images and items connect to a shared experience of indigenous women and girls. Benoit invites indigenous women, girls, and two spirit visitors to share their memories and connections in the diary.

Jude Benoit is a Two-Spirit artist from the Kitpu clan. They have fought for rights and better support systems for the 2s/trans community for over a decade. They are also a fierce land and water warrior whose only words on reconciliation are “land back”. Their work has been fluid over the years (much like their gender), starting with poetry and spoken word when they were a teen, to then helping other queer youth perform and write their own stories by producing shows, open mics, and workshops. In their off time from being an artist, community organizer and downright badass you can find them working as a barista, reading tarot cards and ignoring their obvious burnout.