Dayna McLeod
Dayna McLeod (born 1972) is a Montreal based performance artist and video artist whose work often includes topics of feminism, queer identity, and sexuality.{{cite journal|last1=Cowan|first1=T.L.|title=Dayna McLeod's Post-nationalist Beaver and the Cabaret Phenomenology of Putting Out|journal=TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies|date=Spring 2011|volume=25 |issue=25|pages=230–239|doi=10.3138/topia.25.230 |url=http://topia.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/topia/article/viewFile/34329/32867|access-date=16 October 2016|url-access=subscription}}{{cite journal|last1=Lavoie|first1=Rébecca|title=Queer and Feminist Art Practices in Video Art : Post?-Identity Political Proposals|journal=Recherches féministes|date=2014|volume=27|issue=2|pages=171–189|doi=10.7202/1027924ar |s2cid=193990246 }}{{cite journal|last1=Gingras-Olivier|first1=Marie-Claude|title=Se suivre : une volonté artistique et féministe émancipée du mythe pédagogique|journal=Inter: Art Actuel|date=2014|issue=116|pages=60–63}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.festivalphenomena.com/filles/en/select/bio/?id=mcleod_da|title=Dayna McLeod - Artist — Les Filles électriques|website=www.festivalphenomena.com|access-date=2016-03-12}}
She has a Diploma in Sculpture from the Alberta College of Art and Design and an M.F.A. in Open Media from Concordia University. She is currently competing a Ph.D in Humanities at The Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture at Concordia University.{{Cite web|url=http://actproject.ca/act/dayna-mcleod/|title=Dayna McLeod {{!}} Act Project - Concordia University|website=actproject.ca|access-date=2016-03-12}}
Career
A regular performer at Montreal's Kiss My Cabaret, Meow Mix, Le Boudoir, and Edgy Women Festival, McLeod's work utilizes performance-based, remix and cabaret and practices.{{cite journal|last1=Golden|first1=Anne|title=The Extraction/Fusion Apparatus: Dayna McLeod's engaged mash-up art practice|journal=Canadian Theatre Review|date=Winter 2012|volume=149 |issue=149|pages=36–39|doi=10.3138/ctr.149.36 |url=http://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/ctr.149.36|access-date=16 October 2016}}{{cite journal|last1=Cowan|first1=T.L.|title=Dayna McLeod's Post-nationalist Beaver and the Cabaret Phenomenology of Putting Out|journal=TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies|date=Spring 2011|volume=25 |issue=25|pages=230–239|doi=10.3138/topia.25.230 |url=http://topia.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/topia/article/viewFile/34329/32867|access-date=16 October 2016|url-access=subscription}}{{cite book|last1=Guertin|first1=Carolyn|title=Digital Prohibition: Piracy and Authorship in New Media Art|date=2012|publisher=Continuum|location=New York|url=http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/digital-prohibition-9781441131904/|access-date=16 October 2016}}{{Cite book|title="cabaret performance and the social politics of scene-making"|last=Cowan|first=T.L.|work=More Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women|publisher=yyz|year=2016|editor-last=Householder|editor-first=Johanna|location=Toronto & Montreal|editor-last2=Mars|editor-first2=Tanya}}
She has performed in ten annual editions of the Edgy Women Festival and her work has been shown internationally.{{Cite web|url=https://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/edgy-women-has-reached-the-brink|title=Edgy Women has reached the brink|website=Montreal Gazette|language=en-US|access-date=2016-03-12}} One of her notable works was her "cougar for a year" project, in which she dressed in animal print from June 1, 2012, to June 1, 2013.{{Cite web|url=https://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/mtl-artist-dayna-mcleods-cougar-for-a-year-fashion-project-raises-more-than-just-eyebrows|title=MTL artist Dayna McLeod's Cougar For a Year fashion project raises more than just eyebrows|website=Montreal Gazette|language=en-US|access-date=2016-03-12}}{{cite news|last1=Lussier|first1=Judith|title=Dayna McLeod, artiste cougar|url=http://urbania.ca/canaux/conversations/4109/dayna-mcleod-artiste-cougar|access-date=16 October 2016|agency=Urbania|date=28 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140928204458/http://urbania.ca/canaux/conversations/4109/dayna-mcleod-artiste-cougar|archive-date=28 September 2014|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|last1=Slone|first1=Abi|title=Welcome to the Jungle: Turning 40 was the beginning of a year-long project for Montreal performance artist Dayna McLeod|agency=Montreal Gazette|date=July 26, 2012}} "Cougar for a year" won La Centrale's 2014 Prix Powerhouse for her radical honesty and courage in the face of normalization in our culture.{{Cite web|url=http://www.lacentrale.org/en/2014-powerhouse-prize-finalists-exhibition-and-award-ceremony-cocktail|title=La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse|website=www.lacentrale.org|access-date=2016-03-12|archive-date=2019-03-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330221429/http://www.lacentrale.org/en/2014-powerhouse-prize-finalists-exhibition-and-award-ceremony-cocktail|url-status=dead}} Dayna has also won numerous other awards, and has received funding for video projects from the Canada Council and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
Her body often figures prominently in her performances, such as Uterine Concert Hall an in-situ, sound performance where audience members were invited to listen through her uterus via stethoscope to music and soundscapes played from a speaker inserted into her vagina,{{cite journal|last1=Sandals|first1=Leah|title=Montreal Artist Opens a Concert Hall—In Her Uterus|journal=Canadian Art|date=July 27, 2016|url=http://canadianart.ca/features/montreal-artist-opens-concert-hall-uterus/|access-date=16 October 2016}}{{cite web|last1=Brooks|first1=Katherine|title=Meet The Woman Staging Concerts In Her Vaginal Canal|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/uterine-concert-hall-dayna-mcleod_us_57a9cfade4b0b770b1a4396c|website=Huffington Post|date=10 August 2016 |access-date=16 October 2016}}{{cite news|last1=Rayner|first1=Ben|title=Uterine Concert Hall: the world's most intimate concert venue|url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2016/09/04/uterine-concert-hall-the-worlds-most-intimate-concert-venue.html|access-date=16 October 2016|publisher=Toronto Star|date=September 4, 2016}} and Cougar For a Year in which she wore animal print clothing for an entire year, 24/7 to "[focus] on a public examination of the female body, especially an older woman’s body in a cultural space where this body has somehow become public property ripe for commentary".{{cite web|last1=Rosen|first1=Estelle|title=The Cat's Meow|url=http://www.charpo-canada.com/2013/02/the-question-february-4-2013.html#more|website=The Question|publisher=The Charlebois Post|access-date=16 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018203808/http://www.charpo-canada.com/2013/02/the-question-february-4-2013.html#more|archive-date=18 October 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite journal|last1=Vaughn|first1=R.M.|title=Women Who Run (off to the side of) the Wolves|journal=Cmagazine|date=Autumn 2014|issue=123|url=http://cmagazine.com/issues/123/editorial-wet|access-date=16 October 2016}}
McLeod is also a video maker, utilizing performance-based practices where she performs directly for the camera, often combining this technique with remix practices, such as in Ultimate SUB Ultimate DOM: Maria Von Trapp & Mary Poppins and That's Right Diana Barry- You Needed Me.{{cite journal|last1=Golden|first1=Anne|title=The Extraction/Fusion Apparatus: Dayna McLeod's engaged mash-up art practice|journal=Canadian Theatre Review|date=Winter 2012|volume=149 |issue=149|pages=36–39|doi=10.3138/ctr.149.36 |url=http://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/ctr.149.36|access-date=16 October 2016}}{{cite book|last1=Guertin|first1=Carolyn|title=Digital Prohibition: Piracy and Authorship in New Media Art|date=2012|publisher=Continuum|location=New York|url=http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/digital-prohibition-9781441131904/|access-date=16 October 2016}}
Works
Performance Art
- 2016 - Uterine Concert Hall, Darling Foundry
- 2016 - What’s in the Box?, La Chapelle Theatre, Montreal
- 2015 - Santa’s Wife and The Baby Dyke, Centaur Theatre, Montreal
- 2015 - Live For Menopause
- 2014 - Bronze Cowboy
- 2012 - Cougar For a Year
- 2009 - AV Machine collaboration with Alexis O’Hara
- 2008 - Come Shred My Heart
- 2007 - Monarchy Mama
- 2007 - Car Wash!, La Centrale, Montreal
- 2004 - Sex Accidents and Home Repair, Studio 303, Montreal
- 2004 - The One: a collaboration, collaboration with Jackie Gallant, Studio 303, Montreal
- 2003 - Feminism: Your body is revolting
- 2001 - Tales From the Canadian Beaver trilogy (Oh Canada, Show us Your Beaver; Beaver Fever; Santa Beaver)
Videos
- 2015 - Undercover Lesbian SUPERCUT (Rizzoli & Isles S1.E6)
- 2015 - Older Woman Gentlemanly Dating with a Lesbian Ending SUPERCUT (Psych S5.E4)
- 2015 - Class Action Baby Supercut (The Good Wife S1.E17)
- 2014 - The Woman Who Paints in Blood Anti-Aging SUPERCUT
- 2014 - Creep, collaboration with Jackie Gallant
- 2011 - Nothing Compares to You
- 2011 - Don't Ask Don't Tell Gay, Gay, Gay
- 2011 - Peptalk.
- 2011 - Breaking up with Stephen Harper
- 2010 - The Cremation of Sam McGee
- 2010 - Thong
- 2009 - Ultimate SUB Ultimate DOM: Maria Von Trapp & Mary Poppins
- 2009 - That's Right Diana Barry- You Needed Me
- 2009 - Teabagging and Other Beauty Secrets
- 2009 - The Secret Message Tapes
- 2005 - Pleasure Zone
- 2004 - Dad, Don’t be Mad
- 2002 - Master Libation
- 2001 - Watching Lesbian Porn
- 2000 - The Bathroom Tapes: Track 3; Take 4 ("My Man")
- 1999 - How to Fake an Orgasm (whether you need to or not)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Portal|Biography|LGBTQ}}
- [http://daynarama.com/ daynarama.com]
- [http://givideo.org/ givideo.org]
- [http://www.vtape.org/ vtape.org]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:McLeod, Dayna}}
Category:Canadian performance artists
Category:Women performance artists
Category:Canadian video artists
Category:Canadian women artists