Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley

Biography

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley is an artist living and working between Berlin and London whose practice archives and celebrates the lives and experiences of Black Trans people through animation, sound, performance, and video games. Working under the name ladydangfua, she builds immersive, playable game-worlds that use interactivity itself as a tool for empathy, requiring audiences to actively engage with and respond to the histories and realities of Black Trans existence rather than passively observe them. Her most prominent ongoing project, Black Trans Archive, began as her first commissioned artwork after completing her studies and has since grown into an expansive digital archive built to store and center Black Trans stories, alongside related projects such as Black Trans Sea and Black Trans Air. Brathwaite-Shirley uses technology deliberately as a means of imagining Black Trans lives within environments that have historically excluded or erased them, combining 3D modeling, sound design, and game mechanics into emotionally charged, often confrontational experiences. Her work has been exhibited and discussed by major institutions and publications, including the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Frieze, Serpentine Galleries, the Henry Moore Institute, and Them, with critics highlighting her game-worlds as vital acts of preservation, mourning, and celebration. She has also participated in public programs addressing care, history, and colonialism, including talks with the Black Cultural Archives. Through her multidisciplinary practice, Brathwaite-Shirley continues to expand what an archive can be, treating interactivity and play as essential tools for centering and protecting marginalized histories.