Danica Drago
they/them
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Danica Drago is an interdisciplinary artist and arts facilitator based in Toronto. They earned their B.Des in Material Art & Design: Jewellery/ Metalsmithing from OCAD University in 2015, but spent most of their time in the Ceramics department. Danica’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, in exhibitions, art fairs and symposiums for New York City Jewellery Week, Harbourfront Centre and XPACE Cultural Centre in Toronto, East Carolina University, University of British Columbia, and the Espace Solidor Museum in France, among others. They have led an active studio-based teaching practice in ceramics for the past seven years; working with youth and adults at the Gardiner Museum, Jewish Community Centre, Harbourfront Centre, and local ceramic studios in Toronto. They have also facilitated site-specific clay and tool-making workshops in public parks, libraries, schools, streets and rooftops. They are a recent alumni of the Craft & Design Artist-in-Residence program at Harbourfront Centre.
“Trans/Portal Harness is a wearable chest harness/amulet that allows the wearer to harness their own transformative power. The amulet is a mirror to reflect upon one’s own transitions over time, and is made of material remnants of past ideas and iterations of artworks and self. The harness can be worn horizontally or vertically in various orientations, around the neck and waist of the wearer’s body.”
How does your work relate to the theme transformation— How does the work translate joy into strength?
"I chose to make the wearable form of a harness to represent new creative challenges and strengths that I have been exploring in my own gender and physical expression.
The joy I experience in exploring the transformative power of my body through making is one of the strongest forms of connection I have experienced as a trans/nonbinary person. Being able to physically translate that which is hard for me to express in words through material has been a profound exploration that I will continue indefinitely throughout my life. Clay, metal, plastic and mirror are like conduits to the body for me; they are record-keepers, they have memory, the ability to shift states in their own physical transformations. The materials become my teachers and collaborators, as well as portals to understanding myself in position to physical space."
Anything else you would like to share about this work? This can be an important part of the process, sourcing materials, or research.
"Trans/Portal Harness", Mirror, epoxy resin, colored porcelain, nylon webbing, steel, plastic hardware, 2024
“It was important to me to make use of parts/fragments of past material explorations in this piece to encompass aspects of myself in transition over time, and use them to make a material expression of where I see myself heading in the future. These act like reference points of experiences that have been part of my growth as an artist and as a person navigating an ever-changing state of transformation. The tiny specks of colored ceramic shards embedded into the work were saved from failed sculptural forms, and reclaimed into the frame of the mirror. By embracing and reflecting on failures, I am able to reimagine material possibilities in my work and how they can transform my sense of embodiment.”