Coral Short (born 1973) is a queer Canadian multimedia artist and curator. Based in Berlin and Montreal, they are best known for their performance art, as a curator of short film programs, and as a creator of affordable queer artist residencies.[1][2]

Coral Short
Coral Short photographed in Montréal , Québec, Canada in the Rialto Theatre.
Born1973
Quebec

Career edit

Short was educated at Concordia University and obtained their master's degree in fine art at the Chelsea School of Art.[3] They use textiles, video, nature, and their own body as their media.[4] Short has curated independent queer films internationally in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe. In this capacity, they have worked with organizations such as MIX NYC, MIX Copenhagen, entzaubert, and the Queer Arts Festival.

Multimedia and performance art edit

In 2012, Short's project The Hole-y Army featuring choreographed queers and 100 hand-made puppets[5] was integrated into Dyke Marches in New York City, Montreal,[6] Ottawa, and Toronto. Short identifies as a third-wave feminist and is notable within the craftivism movement. They describe this work as "a slow, thoughtful activism [and] a strong powerful display of resistance".[7] Stop Beating Yourself Up, first performed in 2013 at Edgy Women in Montréal, involves Short wearing boxing gloves and hitting themself for three hours.[8][9] They repeated the same performance, Stop Beating Yourself Up (this time for one hour) at Vancouver's Queer Arts Festival opening art party in 2015.[9]

Scream Choir is 2014 a sound piece consisting of a large group of people screaming in the formation of a traditional choir.[10] The Laughter Choir is a similar 2015 sound piece with a choir of laughter and was performed at Art in the Open in collaboration with Sarah Wendt (and Russell Louder assisting) along with Scream Choir.[11] Fake Orgasm Choir is a 2016 work featuring a large group of people standing in the formation of a traditional choir. Instead of singing notes, they fake orgasms.[12] In 2017, Short used their previous experiences in working with the voice as an instrument and presented a human noise workshop on sound experimentation and production from the body at Sound Acts co-curated by FYTA in Athens, Greece.[13]

Future Visions is a 2014 work presented as a website of over 100 video tarot cards representing queer voices from Europe and North America.[14] Other performance pieces include Gay Incantations (2013),[15] Nest (2014),[16] and Plush (2015).

In 2016, Short began curating regular film screenings in Berlin, including a sporty queer video program called 'Pumped' for Gegen, Berlin's biggest queer party.[17] In 2017, they received a grant from Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa to pay 115 of the video artists they curated that year.[18]

In 2018, they began a series of short eco performance works on their Instagram.[19] They also facilitated three plant based ASMR workshops with Jean P'ark at Martin-Gropius-Bau as part of Welt ohne Außen: Workshops, curated by Isabel Margarita Lewis. These workshops were an opportunity to hear and create beautiful noises as well as relax.[20]

Films edit

  • Gay Incantations
  • Genderless Jellyfish (2013)
  • HUMANimals
  • Lesbian Hand Gestures
  • We Don't Want to Marry

Short was awarded the Hot Shorts award at the 2012 Inside Out Film and Video Festival. In 2014, Short withdrew We Don't Want to Marry from the Vancouver Queer Film Festival program because the festival accepted advertising from a pro-Israel group Yad b'Yad.[21]

References edit

  1. ^ Jordan Arsen. Edgy Women Blog. "Play like a Caterpillar, Sting like a Butterfly: Coral Short." [1] Archived 25 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Baldwin, Lori (2018). "Berlin: history, hedonism, and wildness". Artquest. Archived from the original on 25 July 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  3. ^ "Official website. Retrieved 28 November 2015". Archived from the original on 15 January 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  4. ^ James Goldie. Daily Xtra. "Artist calls for gentleness at Vancouver Queer Arts Festival". Mon, 20 July 2015. [2] Archived 19 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Jessica Schlesinger. Curve Magazine. "Coral Short Brings the March Back to Dyke March". 29 June 2012 [3] Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Podmore, Julie (2015). "Contested Dyke Rights to the City: Montreal's 2012 Dyke Marches in Time and Space". Lesbian Geographies: Gender, Place and Power. Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781472443953. Archived from the original on 29 May 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  7. ^ Rachel Fry. Craftivism : the role of feminism in craft activism. Halifax, Nova Scotia. 2014. p.94 [4] Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ del Giusto-Enos, Elysha (5 March 2013). "Sugar, Spice and Blood Packets". The Link. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  9. ^ a b Fleerackers, Alice (30 July 2015). "Interview QAF Artist Coral Short". Sad Mag. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  10. ^ The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. Archived 16 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  11. ^ "Art in the Open / Art à ciel ouvert". this town is small. 18 February 2013. Archived from the original on 22 August 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  12. ^ kalileoyuen (6 March 2016), Fake Orgasm Choir, archived from the original on 1 January 2019, retrieved 21 August 2018
  13. ^ "Coral Short". SOUND ACTS. Archived from the original on 22 August 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  14. ^ The HTMlles 11 Archived 17 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine Feminist festival of media arts + digital culture. 2014. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  15. ^ Sad Mag. "Gay Incantations x The One Project". March 5, 2013 Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Feminine Moments – Queer Feminist Art Worldwide. Retrieved 28 November 2015. [5] Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ "ↂ GEGEN OLYMPICS ↂ". gegenberlin. 13 June 2016. Archived from the original on 11 July 2017. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  18. ^ "Venice, Berlin, Montreal, Amsterdam!". coral short. 15 January 2018. Archived from the original on 22 August 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  19. ^ Short, Coral (24 July 2018). "Summer Healing". Coral Short. Archived from the original on 22 August 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  20. ^ "Coral Short & Jean P\'ark: Ecosensual Echos". Gropius Bau. Archived from the original on 22 August 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  21. ^ Natasha Barsotti. "UPDATE: Queer film festival criticized for pro-Israel program ad". DailyXtra. 14 August 2014. [6] Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine

External links edit