about the ddc
The Dirty Dishes Collective is a curatorial project co-founded by dani neira and Cassia Powell. Inspired by friendship and the piles of dishes that remain after gathering, we center collaboration, care, and community as modes of working and producing knowledge. Emphasizing queer methodologies and research-based practices, our projects take many forms including exhibitions, residencies, community libraries, workshops, publications, and dinner parties.
ddc press publishes zines, books, and print ephemera with a focus on artist projects, queer narratives, and critical theory.
DDC was founded in 2022 on the unceded territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungen) peoples, now known as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations. As of 2024, the DDC is now based on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
who we are
dani neira
co-founder
Dani Neira (they/them) is an interdisciplinary researcher working across curation, sculpture, text, and book-making. Rooted in methodologies of care, collaboration, and gathering, their practice is invested in alternative and affective modes of knowledge production. Drawing on queer and trans studies, archival research, and diasporic narratives, Neira’s practice aims to generate slippery sites of recognition, distortion, and potentiality.
Neira holds a BA in Art History and Visual Studies from the University of Victoria, and is currently based between Berlin and the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (Vancouver, Canada).
Cassia Powell (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist-researcher currently located in Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh territories (Vancouver, BC). Their practice explores queer digital folklore, comfort + care as radical acts of social resistance, and the interstitial play between tactility and technology. They work with machinic forms of installation, primarily with quiltmaking and oil painting, as well as writing, publishing and curation.
Cassia is a BFA Visual Arts Honours graduate from the University of Victoria (2020).