A year in the life

This last year included a lot of huge life events for me! My partner and I had our third commitment ceremony and 5th year anniversary with both our parents, extended family and friends during a love ceremony offered by our good friend and minister Aaron Miechkota. We found a place near Jean Talon market with a ton of light for my ever growing plant collection which you can meet on my instagram. I haven’t had a lease in my own name since 2006 in London England so having stable housing had been a struggle for me. My partner was able to become a permanent resident this year too and now has free health care! Thank you Canada and all the help from friends and family we’ve had along the way to get here. A deep thank you to our friends who helped us DIY renovate our home which turned out to be an epic undertaking. And now onto art which I’ve managed to squeeze in amongst life’s goings ons, ups and downs.

A lot of random people I know and don’t know have been editing my Wikipedia Page which you can view below. Thanks to friends and strangers for doing this! You can read my page here. Also while randomly googling my name I was delighted to find it on this list.

Last January I did a workshop and a performance at Fresh Festival in San Francisco as a part of Ponderosa On the Road curated by Adi Brief. Thank you to all my brave workshop participants and performers who did the somatic release of Choir of Emotions. We unfortunately don’t have a lot of photographs of this but here is some documentation I found on line of the project which I also did in Athens Greece at the wonderful festival Sound Acts. I’m so grateful they documented this project so well!

I took over Betonest for the last incarnation of my artist residency program there. Caitlin Fisher was my steady collaborator and many waves of artists came throughout the month including our largest residency called THAW. I hope to create residences outside Berlin after COVID, but next time I will be doing them at a smaller space called Quecke. This location is located near a forest and a beautiful Creek. I have collaborated with these hard working queer feminists before and their space is gorgeous.

Here are some photos of this residency time period April 2019. I don’t think I have worked so hard in my entire life, but giving time and space to the artists was worth it. To carve that space and time for conversation, collaboration and pure creation is so valuable.  I just wish there was more resources given to what I do. My gardening actually funds these residencies! Canada Council for the Arts has told me that there is no funding for running residencies. If you have any ideas around this let me know. It’s been four years now of running successful incredible international artist residencies with no funding.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Also my dear friend E Hearte helped me apply to be a Media Artist, A Visual Artist and a Curator on the new Canada Council for the Arts portal. The curator bit was the most exciting for me to be acknowledged by Canada Council as a curator after over ten years of radical curations at all sorts of venues all over North America and Europe. A lot of queer artists have heard of me, or I have curated them or their friends, so it was nice to finally get some professional recognition. Now I just need to get a grant! In all these years of art making Canada Council has yet to offer me one, so if you are a proofreader let me know.

Last April I was in this curation by my longtime friend Kimura Byol.

This is the work that was screened. I filmed it in my kitchen holding a black sheet and my sweet ex boyfriend Logan Curley is the model.

–

In September my lovely Newfoundland aquaintance Eva Crocker got this article published about being in the Fake Orgasm Choir.

 

In September Women With Kitchen Appliances had our last show at VIVA and our 20th year anniversary. This project is still the most successful collective I have ever founded! un grand merci à Lamathilde pour toute son organisation.

 

While I was on 6 week silent retreat my partner and my distributor gave permission for my film Arrangement to be screened in Korea a country that I lived in and love dearly.

In July I was curated in a program at Eastern Edge by Jason Penney which you can view here alongside among excellent artist company. Arrangement was screened which you can view here:

Arrangement from Coral Short on Vimeo.

This past summer a bunch of Montreal witches and I took a road trip to Faerie Camp Destiny where I was able to upkeep my Earth thrones I created with Troy Davis, Sunny Doyle and K Hanley. Here’s an image of the Toad Throne by the Maypole which is doing quite well. We were able to replant and take care of  the native plants on the Ancestor Throne which actually has dead faeries ashes in it inside the sacred ancestor circle and cut back the Chaise Lounge throne which had become very overgrown in the meadow too.

FLORAL SLEEP grows and grows!

 2 radio shows, 2 WORKSHOPS and 2 SHOWS last year!

Last July Ryan Backer and I performed our project Floral Sleep at my work’s 10 year Anniversary party in July. And then we performed in October for True North Insight’s Birthday party for our founders Daryl Lynn Ross and Pascal Auclair. And then I gave a workshop for adults with Winnie Superhova and one for kids with Lari Jalbert. Thank you Studio XX for paying us well and giving us an ample budget for supplies. Goddess bless that feminist organization! And a huge thank you to my beloved friend Lucas Crawford for writing about my work.  Thanks also to xx files for interviewing us about the work which you can listen to here.

WELLNESS is the Watchword

“This word appears everywhere as the reason for us to slow down, most often attached to a product that promises to save you hours of time via speed. Paradoxically, if today’s wellness discourse were a slogan, it might be: hurry up and slow down!

Coral Short’s new project engages ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response), in which exposure to everyday stimuli (usually noises, eg. nails tapping; eating sounds; whispering) induces tingling sensations and euphoria. ASMR seems built for speed, given its extreme popularity on Youtube. But where high-tech folks seek the latest watch to capture their running speed, Short’s technology of wellness here is like good BBQ cookery: “low and slow.” They move plant boughs around a circle of laying participants, stimulating them gently with plant sounds.

Corporations market WELLNESS as a series of inward-looking products. But Short’s work redefines wellness as the connective, outward-looking potential of queer pleasure. The tingling of Short’s plant-based ASMR isn’t about a romanticized notion of stopping to smell the roses – even if it is about listening to the breeze of leaves. The tingling is literal; ASMR is often described as arousing, and Short describes this project as “eco- sexual.”

We buy cutting-edge quick-fixes. Short’s project is slower and more direct: it provokes bodies to feel better on the smallest scale. This is wellness redefined as feeling good, undertaken at the level of the goose bump.

Coral Short has long thought about wellness in exciting ways. Where foodie blogs luxuriate in the slow self-care of “stress baking,” Short tuned up queer rhythms via an experimental band, Women With Kitchen Appliances. WWKA didn’t take up the ‘time- saving’ kitchen tools of gendered domestic labour as escape, but instead as slow public experiment.

Where fitness media often dangle a fat-phobic wellness carrot – the self-pride that supposedly follows when we can wear the new (smaller) shirt or new (sexier) boots – Short has again flipped the game in advance. They have sculpted and wore “Butter Boots,” aptly named. Similarly, at a Vancouver arts show, Short and their team of servers moved through the crowd, offering the show-goers fudge: “How would you like your fudge packed?”

Whether laughing or crying – witness “Crying Machine,” in which attendees sit next to Short while they chop onions – connection and wellness happen queerly in Short’s work.”

Lucas Crawford (Fredericton) is a trans/fat/queer academic and poet.

 

Here are some photos of our performance Floral Sleep.

During the pandemic my much anticipated spring residency BELTANE at Ponderosa has been canceled much to the dismay of myself and the 20 artists who had bought plane tickets to come. Looks like we may have to skip a fall residency with COVID and return hopefully in a year for our next residency.

twinkle and I were able to pull off moving our Queer Healing event from an IRL event into a URL event in record time. The learning curve was very steep but we managed to pull it off! Over 100 people came from North America and Europe. Thank you to all our workshop leaders, volunteers and participants! And thanks to Christeen Francis for the beautiful posters. This event I believe has become a part of my greater art practice as it is attended by many artists. Gen Darling created a banner for our new group Queer Healing and Resilience if you are looking for nourishing queer friendly online events during the Pandemic join this group we made for local and international queer healing events.

 

During the pandemic Winnie Ho and I created an online performance experimentation curation from the visual arts and dance communities we are a part of internationally. There was no audience just creators creating for each other – trying to process what is happening in visual and movement based practices. We hope to create another event like this next month.

You Do You

Zoom Screencap by Kimura Byol

Alexis O’Hara (Montréal)
Cait Fisher (Berlin)
Cindy Baker (Lethbridge)
Coral Short (Montréal)
Eddy Levin (Berlin)
Eshan Rafi (Toronto)
Eva Wǒ (Philadelphia)
Holly Oakley (Chicago)
J’ean Park (Berlin)
Joachim Magdalena & Gambletron (L.A.)
Kimura Byol (Montréal)
Lailye Weidman (Turner Falls, MA)
Londs Reuter (NYC)
Magdalena Hutter (Berlin)
Rebecca Ladida (Eastern Townships, Québec)
Sarra Bouars & Kristianne Salcines (Berlin)
Winnie SuperHova (Montréal)
Andrew Tay (Montréal)
Lara Oundjian (Montréal)
Sasha Kleinplatz (Montréal)
Justin de Luna (Montréal)
Nien Tzu Weng (Montréal)
Lenore Claire (Montréal)
Zi Ro Buch (London)
Thea Patterson & Jeremy Gordaneer-Paintings/Sculptures (Edmonton)
Anouk Thériault (Montréal)
Aisha Sasha John (Toronto)
Kinga Mi (Montréal)
Pam Tzeng (Calgary)
Maxine Segalowitz (Montréa)
Moe Clark (Montréal)
Ralph Escamillan (Vancouver)
Nate Yaffe (Montréal)
Benoît Lachambre (Montrèal)
Victoria Hunt (Australia)
River Halen Guri (Montrèal)

Here are a few screen caps of the performances. Not in order artists are: Moe Clark, Magdalena Hutter, Ralph Escamillan, Lenore Claire, Sarra Bouars & Kristianne Salcines, Cait Fisher and Cindy Baker and last but not least Pam Tzeng.

It was our friend Indigo’s birthday the other day and the neighbourhood got a surprise! We got on a lot of strangers’ social media as there were cameras out wherever we went and many confused and delighted facial expressions. Thank god for my gay husband Troy Davis who stored this work while I was in Berlin for 3 years!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming home

I moved home to my heart city of Montreal! So much has happened! I am setting up a winter studio in a cozy and comfortable place with my now husband Ryan Backer. And I am so grateful to have free healthcare again!

 

I was in a show just as we just arrived, curated by fascinating Franco millennials. I went to the finissage at le Cheval Blanc and got to meet Sophie Latouche and my wonderful curators Eli Larin and Alexandra Tremblay. It was the first show I was ever in that was named by emojis only – no text!

🍆😂🤳
[Emoji d’aubergine/Emoji de visage riant aux larmes/Emoji de bras tenant un cellulaire]

After this show I was in Festival Phenomena for my second time, curated by D. Kimm- on the Rialto main stage!

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We created the first Montreal edition of FAKE ORGASM CHOIR. Betty Pomerleau, Ryan Backer and I created two new songs in addition to the song the Berlin choir created.

 

The iteration of the choir starred Ryan Backer, Eva Crocker, Ruby Kato Attwood,Christeen Francis, Sunny Doyle, Susie, Sigrid Patterson, Ash, Kelly Rea and the amazing Betty Pomerleau. Thanks to Shayo Detchema for documenting!

 

Earlier in January my partner Ryan, my best friends Winnie Superhova and Natasha Hargovan, and my gay husband Troy Davis created another successful Queer Healing Event. The next one will be at an accessible venue in November– we hope! More info on the event here. Please contact any of us if you would like to be involved in the next one. I feel this event is deeply linked to my social art practice in many ways.

 

 

BEFORE I LEFT BERLIN…

I managed to pull off two massive curations on the weekend of August 17 and 18th. One was a video curation, and the other was a performance curation.

 

Description: Coral Short deconstructs privilege within the genre of film. Videomakers decipher the notion of luck as privilege within our white cis supremacist society. This is unpacked through landscapes, ideas of heteronormative “beauty”, as well as signs and signifiers for luxury. Anti- authoritative aesthetic strategies are implemented to question the often unquestioned status quo. In this brand new program full of world premieres, playful political performance art unravels ideas, and film artists infuse old medias with intention to speak in new visual languages. From covering colonial statues with piss, to performance princesses, a wide range of different focuses emerge and visually unfold.

 

Thank you COVEN for such a packed and smooth event. And to artists Imogen Heath and Tami T for coming out!  Other filmmakers on this bill included Claire Arctander, Divide and Dissolve, Sab D’Souza, Daniel Embree, Shon Faye, Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, BB Gunn, Winston Hacking, Virginia FiveNames Joseph, and Yasmeen Nematt Alla.

 

The performance curation was a successful fundraiser for a 3 day event around the senses called Sensorium organized by Calu Lema, Caritia Abell and myself. Huge gratitude to all the amazing performers. Big thank you to Adi Brief and Alex Tsoli for producing this fundraiser event with me and also to everyone who came out! Included was a screening room dedicated to a magnificent retrospective of Eva Wo‘s life work.

Around this same time Angela Gabereau and I were in a show in Montreal with Future Visions yet again!

ELO 2018 PERFORMANCES
Eastern Bloc Exhibition
Uchronia|What if?
6 PM – 10:30 PM
For ELO 2018, curator Lisa Tronca presents a selection of Uchronia | What if? artists, some exhibiting their work for the first time in Montreal. By proposing different modes of reception of hypermedia works, this exhibition questions the gaps and connections between physical and virtual worlds.

Salvador Barajas // Pippin Barr // Stéphane Degoutin & Gwenola Wagon // João Enxuto & Erica Love // Angela Gabereau, Coral Short & Visionaries // Skawennati

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Right now I am travelling in the bay area with Ponderosa people from Berlin. I gave a workshop on my new project Choir of Emotions and performed with the Fresh Festival. I am staying in San Francisco right now with an old friend/cultural connector, Ernesto Sopprani, who I have the most inspiring conversations with.

Before I left to San Francisco, I was on the french radio being interviewed by the legendary Michelle Lacombe! I did my first ever interview in french. Listen to the interview below. I am looking forward to being on another french podcast soon to talk about Queer Healing Day.

 

 

Back to Germany in the Spring…. I am the international cultural connector of Betonest in April! Please feel free to write to me to see if we can offer you a residency there just outside Berlin. You are very welcome to come for a week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks or the whole month! I am running a multi media residency with Caitlin Fisher called THAW April 23-May 3, but you are welcome in April. Please tell your maker friends who need time and space to work. I also hope to create a ritual residency there for October.

WWKA (Women With Kitchen Appliances) is reforming for VIVA. It will be our 20th year anniversary and we will be performing with 10 old and 10 new members in late September!! I founded this project in 1997(ish).

My french seems to be flowing more easily this time around, which I am grateful for. I adore my francophone feminist queer community around me. I am grateful to be home and surrounded by my old and new communities in Montreal, New York and the Bay!

 

 

summer healing

 

I’ve created over twenty new short eco performance works on instagram, see above or click here > #beingwithtrees

Being with nature seems to be my theme this year- I was also asked to present this workshop with Jean P’ark, assisted by my boy Orion Twinkle (Ryan Backer)…

Ecosensensual Echos  @ Martin Gropius Bau

There were three chances to experience plant based ASMR at Gropius Bau as part of Welt ohne Außen: Workshops, curated by Isabel Margarita Lewis. This workshop was an opportunity to hear and create beautiful noises as well as relax.

Informationen auf Deutsch hier: https://bit.ly/2LJXbA3

Coral and Jean will empower you to create sonic sanctuaries. We will begin with an opening circle. Then we will guide a relaxing and grounding sound meditation. This will be followed by group ASMR* performed by Jean and Coral. This experience is sonic massage for the parasympathetic nervous system of the body, which allows relaxation and slows many high energy functions. Different sound combinations and noises create a multiplicity of feelings and healings via reverberations throughout the body. The participants will split into small groups to give and receive this sonic experience amongst each other. The group will have time to chat about the sensations of sound offerings afterwards. Then new groups will form to create fresh ecstatic sound experiences, with time for gentle feedback. At the end we will make space for larger group feedback about the effects of the sonic ecosensual experiences. To end this enjoyable experience Coral will lead a breathing meditation to ground us back into full body awareness, strengthening connection with the soundscapes of planet Earth.

*Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR): a gentle euphoria brought on by soft interesting sounds.

---

In other exciting news, I was invited to a two day workshop about activism and art by Ponderosa matriarch Stephanie Maher and choreographer Meg Stuart with some very talented people to further the discussions for planning Tanzcongress 2018.

 

I also got to participate in the Survival Project – an interactive dance piece choreographed by Kristianne Salcines.

I was also interviewed for an article in Artquest written by Lori Baldwin that you can read here

 

I have been working in different realms lately – a lot to do with my meditation practice which informs my art practice in deep ways. This has included leading meditations all summer: in Sweden, Berlin, and Brandenburg. I am slowing down and healing from head injuries from my last concussion with the help of healers Shannon Cooney, Tender Bender and Isabella Lennert. I’ve been gardening a ton at Taubenblau, which my head and body love to do- and sometimes my queer family gets to stay in the mansion there with me, which is fun.

Two people have made films about me lately 🙂 …

James Velo made a difficult and beautiful movie about how afab artists survive in Berlin, which stars me and my collaborator Alex Tsoli.

Henry Wilde also made a movie with me based on Gilles Deleuze from A to Z. It has me telling a very wide range of life stories from my train hopping, circus, and squatting days. Neo Hulcker did the wonderful sound in it and Twinkle was on the camera.

In other news, I will be moving back to Canada most of the year with 1/3 of the year still living back in Berlin. I love my Berlin communities so very much, but I love free Canadian health care even more!

To celebrate coming home I’ll be performing FAKE ORGASM CHOIR at Phenomena Festival in October in Montreal, so I’ll be looking for participants. Reach out if you are local and interested to work with me coralshort at gmail dot com

Lastly, I am creating a performance art event based around the senses as a fundraiser for Sensorium on August 17 in Berlin with friends. More details on this here.

 

 

Forest, Vancouver, Bronx, Montreal, San Francisco, Berlin

🌳

 I AM PERFORMING IN THE FOREST EVERY WEEK with TREES and PLANTS

see #beingwithtrees here by scrolling through to videos
i’ve made around 20 so far!

･ﾟ

･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧

･ﾟ

💰 FEBRUARY

The Lovesome event went really well with enough money raised to perfectly feed all of our residents.  Thank you so much for everyone who came out to perform and to support our performers and filmmakers. Here’s the first shop and we did a second shop too!

Hibernate residency happened at Betonest this year and was run flawlessly with Caitlin Fisher who I worked on ccsport with at NGBK when I first arrived in Berlin. It was absolutely lovely! Dinner guests included Cathy Walsh and Adi Brief. Everyday I led a morning meditation and Caitlin ran Calisthenics on the Canal.

Our 20 in Residence this year were almost Berliners except four wonderful people from Latvia, Scotland, Kansas and Rhode Island:

Agnese Bordjukova (Latvia)
Alison Smith (Scotland)
Ben Miller
Elliot Blue
Hank Bobbit
Henna Hoplin
Jean P’ark 
Kim Bode
Lady Gaby 
Liad Hussein Kantorowicz 
Lottie Sebes 
Magdelena Hutter 
Mor Demer 
Nico Lim
Peter Max Lawrence  (San Francisco/ Kansas)
Polly Trope 
Sadie Lune
Stefanie Hanna 
Xander Marro (Providence, Rhode Island)
Zinzi Buchanan

･ﾟ

･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ

･ﾟ

🔮 February 23- March

Future Visions is living inside an online curation called Uchronia as part of the online section of the Quebec film festival called Rendez-vous.

･ﾟ

･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ

･ﾟ

💉 My piercing work was in a show of Kris Grey:

･ﾟ

･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ

･ﾟ

🔨 I helped build up Forum Expanded at Academie die Kunst as I do most Februarys now with an amazing team of 20 queer workers.

･ﾟ

･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ

･ﾟ

MARCH

Arrangement and Lesbian Hand Gestures are in a new amazing film festival.

It’s called Hot Bits

APRIL

Alex Tsoli and I curate Fluids at Altes Finanzamt on Tuesday April 3rd as a part of Easter Conference in Berlin. More info about our amazing video artists here ←

Also in April collaborative video work in between with dancers Sasha Kleinplatz, ct thorne and Hana Van der Kolk will be in an exhibition on April 19 at 500 Capp Street/The David Ireland House in connection with an exhibit titled School of Chairs. Both this exhibition and the screening are concerned with works that explore emotional resonances of furniture, buildings, enclosures, interior spaces and relations to identity and consciousness.

･ﾟ

･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ☆✧･ﾟ

･ﾟ

Lately I have been deeply affected by the death of a beloved friend Emma Deboncoeur who was very close to my heart and art for over a decade in 5 cities. Emma was inside two pieces of mine – The Insiders at RQS, Scream Choir at Encuentro in Montreal and also at the vernissage of Nest in Montreal Quebec and Throning at Ida in Tennessee where she made pansy cookies for us. I also shot these two movies due to her – one at her house and one in a hotel room in San Francisco. This is the third person who was a part of my art to have died in the last few years. I never forsaw these sorrows in working with so many people I love in these complex kinship structures. Here is a photo of Emma and I at my birthday party when I was in my 30s in our neighbourhood of West Oakland.

 

 

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

🌕

coming in MAY and JUNE

I am helping to organize Betonfest with Yoav Admoni and Caitlin Fisher. Check out the program here. We would love you to come spontaneously perform at this festival in our concrete factory!

Future Visions, a collaboration with Angela Gabereau will be in the Vancouver Queer Arts Festival. It’s their tenth year anniversary and they are also celebrating an all year art space that opened this year called Sum. Vancouver is my home city so it’s always a pleasure to return with my work. Please submit work for this show here

 

 

 

Venice, Berlin, Montreal, Amsterdam!

I had a very busy end of summer pulling together the giant annual fundraiser Witch Rave successfully after a dramatic and spooky lightning storm!  This year’s event was co-organized with best friends and artists: Alex Tsoli, Jean P’ark, Orion Twinkle and Winnie SuperHova. Together, with the community, we again miraculously raised thousands of euros to provide an opportunity for many talented artists to participate in Murmurs. Deep thanks to the almost 1,000 people who came out to support this fundraiser. Murmurs was the first queer sound art residency in the world. Including the organizers and BetOnest director Yoav Adamoni, there were thirty one of us who filled the art hotel for ten days! Murmurs was the largest event ever in the space, and ColorBlock joined us for a big party- making it the funnest party of 2018 at the new residency space.

The amazing artists who participated in the residency were:

1. Pêdra Costa
2. Ze Royale
3. Henry Wilde
4.  NeoNeoneo Hülcker
5. Hannah Levin
6. Lyd AD.
7. Gee
8. Zinzi Buchanan aka Zi Ro Buch
9. Lady Gaby
10. Mikatsiu Høres
11. Lori Elisabeth
12. Luiza Moraes
13.  Gambletron
14. Johnny Forever
15. Miriam Schickler
16. Vincent aka Consumer-Refund
17. Lulu
18. Aisha Sasha John
19. Lydia Miligkou
20. Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou
21. Maa Yaa
22. Alex Alvina Chamberland
23. Caitlin Fischer
24. Sherry Ostpovitch
25. Vera Hofmann
26. Sophie W. Pagliai

Here are some photos from the beautiful Murmurs residency:

—————————————————————————————————————————————–Two weeks later my partner Ryan Backer and I took the train to Amsterdam, and biked around a lot in all sorts of weather. We went to the Art Deco Sauna to warm up and relax, which was incredible!  Then I curated Genderclear at Transcreen.

This is one of my favourite bills of my life. It was helped along by friends Angel Ka, Anna Helme, Nabeela Vega, Raven Davis, Russell Louder, and Ryan.

Jespa Jacob Smith, Anakin Tora, Brettley Kai, and Wyatt Riot were in attendance, which was a total delight. This program was funded by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa.

Video artists on the bill: Jespa Jacob Smith, Justin Shoulder & Bhenji Ra, SATURN, Mitch Mitchell, Erum Khan, Anakin Tora, JJ Levine, Brettley Kai, and Wyatt Riot, Namita Aavriti, Thirza Cuthand, Buzz Slutsky, Kinga and Winnie Superhova, Max Rocha, Kübra Varol, Isaiah Lawrence, Lene Ricarda Vollhardt and Luce Delire and HYENAZ

---

After this trip, the next weekend Ryan and I had an ecosexual commitment ceremony/ ritual in the light rain in a forest which led by my wyfe, performance artist, and porn star Sadie Lune. This event took place at Quecke, with 20 of our closest Berlin friends in attendance, and included a giant feast. Gorgeous photos were a wedding gift from  Jo Pollox.

—————————————————————————————————————————————–While gardening at the Tauenblau estate in October, I got to spend time back at BetOnest with some great artists from New York, Glasgow, Montreal, and Philly who I have had the joy to work with before: Hannah Levin, Ben Owens, Nash Glynn, Stephanie Creaghan and Evie Snax! Also, I got to meet and listen to inspiring stories from Yoshiko Chuma for the first time.

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

I worked at the Berlin Porn Film Festival in October, 10 hours a day, running the Spektrum Venue again with Alex Tsoli for almost a week. There I curated the last of the Berlin Series of 2017, called FEAST, on loop in the lobby of the Spektrum – art science community. Many of the artists were here for the festival Theo Meow, Candy Flip, Lori Elisabeth, Cybee Bloss and AORTA films, which was exciting.

FEAST
An experimental short film curation on loop
Coral serves up the best in food porn mixed in with a sprinkling of high art for you to devour. These hedonistic video artists gorge on fruit, picnics, bodies, hot dogs, cakes, candy, and last but not least gallons of milk. Get some food to go and come sit at the Spektrum to spend some quality time chewing and swallowing these beautiful and visceral videos in between screenings. Headphones will be provided for this sumptuous overindulgence. A generous helping of thanks to Zachary Hutchinson, Cybee Bloss, Anna Luisa Petrisko, Nabeela Vega and Ryan Backer for ideas and support with this curation. This delicious experience is free of charge!

Kailey Bryan and Pepa Chan
D.S. Chapman
Claire Arctander
Asaf AharonsonYoshie Sakai
Devyn Manibo
Nabeela Vega
LAZY MOM
Glitter Hangover
Sister Mantos
Meow Meow
Star Kim (aka Cho Mihee, aka Kimura Byol, aka Nathalie Lemoine)
Natalie Valencia
Jacqueline Mary and Violette Dentata
Cybee Bloss
Sarah Hill and Hayley Morgenstern
AORTA films

---

My performance work Guardian was in a book called Desire Change and also in a talk. Photo by Lisa Graves. This image was taken at a contemporary art lecture at Concordia University in Montreal by Heather Davis. photo Christeen Francis.

————————————————————————————————————————————

In recent news Future Visions is in the Queer Arts Festival this June! And we are looking for new submissions, if you or someone you know would like to make a one minute future prediction on video and upload it to Vimeo or Youtube. Future Visions was featured in The Wrong (biennale) in the Pavilions section up until January 31st, 2018 at the Venice Bienale

————————————————————————————————————————————

Here is my newest submission call for this year’s five brand new video and performance art curations. Please check out the fb event here. I am curating with and alongside wonderful organizations and people again this year!

Over the holidays I paid all the artists from last year who screened in the Berlin Series I curated –  115 international video artists! I have transferred all the grant money out to these talented individuals. Thank you for being part of this epic project, and to the Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa for this amazing funding for all of us.

For my relaxed New Year’s Resolution I will be creating a video performance series with trees and plants whenever I can. I wish to take some sacred time to be more still and intimate in and with nature. Follow me on instagram to enjoy this video series shot by myself and close friends. I am going back to my performance art roots to build on ecosexual and earth-art projects that I created in the United States between 2011-2015.

In January this year I had the incredible opportunity to dance in Isabel Margarita Lewis’s interactive choreography at Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin for Into Worlds-The Craft of Blurring Boundaries, a huge immersive arts conference.

Find out more about our post Valentine’s Day performance art fundraiser February 16th

for the Hibernate Residency here

Design by Nico Lim.

 

summertime events

Here I am at Betonest, dreamy location of my working holidays/ artist residency. My job out here is being a master gardener at an estate called Tauenblau. I am here with my loving and supportive partner Ryan Backer and platonic wyfe Sadie Lune and other creative friends. Nothing like nature and countryside artist villages to rebalance the soul from city life.

BIG NEWS:

FUTURE VISIONS IS IN THE VENICE BIENNALE THIS SEPTEMBER

click here to see our interactive online queer tarot project. Press shuffle with the mouse to hear and see your video future. Huge thank you to all our visionaries and to my collaborator, the genius Angela Gabereau.

This summer our new sound project The Awful Plastics played two shows. We recorded at the new space Jean started which is called the Rooms. If you missed these shows you can listen to us on soundcloud here in the comfort of your own home. Plastic asmr with my improvisational peers Misha Yom and Jean P’ark. Between us, including Hannah Levin, we have over 60 years of sound and improvisation practice.

Blurred Edges Festival in Hamburg. Photos by Janto Djassi

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Neu West Berlin. Photos by Alex Tsoli

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AND THEN I GOT TO FLY ALL THE WAY TO GREECE IN 2 HOURS

Human Noise Workshop
By Coral Short

Welcome to a cathartic experience you will never forget. What noises can you make alone? We are curious to hear them! What happens when you mix noises together in different combinations with new friends? With interesting variations? In whispers? crescendo? with brave and surprising spontaneity? The full range of deep human emotions will be embodied ephemerally. Fascinating montages of human communication inside unique sonic moments will emerge. We will also be working with the breath, silence, listening and the staying in the present moment which will enrich our experiments.

I gave my first Human Noise workshop at AMOQA in Athens. It was over “sold out” with many high level musicians and academics in attendance.  It was a fascinating and magical experience. People communicated in new sounds. At the end we composed a circular choir of emotions which was very moving and beautiful. We did an impromptu performance at Sound Acts. This idea is something I would love to work with again. Thank you for such inspirational workshop participants and to the amazing Sound Acts team.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

I am working hard on WITCH RAVE, an epic art party with my best friends Alex Tsoli, Jean P’ark and Winnie Superhova where one night a year the witchz take over Insel – Berlin Treptow for WITCH RAVE

Friday AUGUST 18th

DOORS @ 9
FIRST PERFORMANCES @ 9:30

DJS
Nai
Amperia
YHA_YHA
Maria Bruxxxa
Thom Thompson
Nelson Landwerh (Geneva)
Mysteriös M. Mystisch

VJ
León Allez

Sound Performances* til 1am
throughout the castle tower and grounds

Outdoor Stage
Rieko Okuda (Berlin)
Aisha Sasha John (Toronto)
Alex Alvina Chamberland (Berlin)
Henry Wilde and NeoNeoneo Hülcker (Berlin)
Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou and Lydia Miligkou (Athens)

Indoor Stage
Consumer-Refund (Berlin)
Olympia Bukkakis and COLLECTIVE ANXIETY (Berlin)

Ritual in Tree Circle
Ze Royale

Fire
Lucrezia Cosima

Wandering Performances
Zi Ro Buch (Berlin)
Luiza Moraes (Budapest)
Nicola Bullock (Ponderosa)
Winnie SuperHova (Montreal)
Hannah Levin (Toronto/ Berlin)
Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou (Athens)
Johnny Forever and Gambletron (Montreal)
David Braithwaite and Werner Kernebeck (Berlin)

Installations
Maa Yaa (Berlin)
Viviana Druga (Berlin)
Sherry Ostpovitch (London)
Thomas Anthony Owen (USA)

Moon Terrace Interactives (top floor)
Lyd AD
Lady Gaby
Yoav Shavit
Henna Hoplin
Lori Elisabeth (Budapest)

BUTCH CUT by Hank Bobbit

Tarot by Najee Rene

Ink by Fercha and Mitch-beta

Looping Cinema room
Liz Rodda (Austin)
Lamathilde (Montreal)
Kimura Byol (Montreal)
Maria Gaspar (Chicago)
Carrie Hawks (New York)
Mikatsiu Høres (Athens)
Pêdra Costa (Vienna)

Late night snacks !
by Rosa Negra Vegan Catering

this event is a fundraiser for the first ever queer sound residency in the world called Murmurs located just outside Berlin at the raw utopic Betonest

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

VIDEO ART CURATIONS

inside and outside the institution

Coral Short is an interdisciplinary artist and curator residing in Berlin; this year marks a career milestone when they reach a decade of programming experimental video and film. Their curatorial practice explores queer experience with a particular attention to works that underline and question the ways aesthetics act as a form of political discourse. Their interests centre around themes of the body, sexuality, identity politics, spirituality, and the queer future. Coral gathers the collective imaginings of their community through public and private dialogue to produce projects such as this ongoing film series.

Femmosphere June 3 @ Schwules Museum

Lo Pecado and I curated a selection of short, tough, and tender films that celebrated, revered, and gave insight into femininity. We would like to thank Sadie Lune, Ferrin Solano, Skyler Braeden Fox, Ryan Backer, Rebecca Ladida and Vera Hofmann for support with this event.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Video Artists
Lo Pecado
Paula Pinho Martins Nacif
Kanchi Wichmann
Alexandra Carson and Lucy Mills
Local Honey
Xanthe Dobbie
Lark VCR
Melanie Jame Wolf
Sandrine Deumier
Eva Wǒ + Ma Ya Ma Ya
Nao Bustamante
Frances Adair Mckenzie
Kiona H Niehaus
LoFi Cherry

Here are is a still from Love Poem by Frances Adair Mckenzie.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

July 6 Queer Healing @ Raumerweiterungshalle

This high vibrational curation was recharged and expanded upon from the original queer healing program in Amsterdam at Queeristan last year. These magical filmmakers spanned Turtle Island (North America), Asia, and Africa. This unapologetic program embraced the sacredness of continual self transformation. It investigated an idea of self care that didn’t shy away from politics or mental health stigmas. Video crystals, video spells, video rituals and video poetry encouraged healing and vulnerability among us.

Three healers were available for sessions in the garden (we can highly suggest all 3!)
Yoav Shavit: www.yoavontheway.com
Nik Las: www.shiatsu-bodywork-berlin.de
Benjamin Block bodywork.: www.benjaminblock.de

Delicious Menu was created by Rosa Negra Vegan Catering

FILMMAKERS
Rui Hu
hems
Nash Glynn
Taja Lindley
TABITA REZAIRE
Lucas Crawford and Coral Short
Wayne Pellerin-Tate
jeepneys – artist and Nastya Valentine – director
Raven Davis
Desearch Repartment
Nomy Lamm and Lisa Ganser
Sonya Renee Taylor: thebodyisnotanapology.com

All my screenings are now funded by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa

I AM IN A BOOK.

…inside an article by Karin Cope about genderqueers in Canada!

Narcissus was in a show called: POISONING THE PATRIARCHY WITH “FEMALE GAZE”

Spring Forward!

I am at Betonest/ Ponderosa for a short one week artist residency at the end of this beautiful April! Vera of Schwules Museum and my new platonic husband Jean, who I collaborate with on many projects, came to visit me in the countryside.  I am here still working in the garden, going on walks, bike rides and finishing up art projects. My senses feel so refreshed!

The Berlin Series is now funded by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa. Thank you to the many people who helped me write this grant. It takes a village! I would also like to thank Quecke for support with this project with the Hibernate residency time and space.

February was my gentle curation entitled Soft. It was the first, fullest, and certainly the fluffiest bill of the next 9 months from the Berlin Series! Many sweet people gathered with us in the cozy and comfy candlelight for some velvety video art. There was a plethora of beautiful soft colors, textiles, bodies, skies, textures, subtle sounds, sweet surprises on the screen at Altes Finanzamt to cheer each other up from the winter coldness. Big thank you to Henna Hoplin for hosting us. The amazing artists I worked with:

Nikki Forrest
Lauren Fournier
Tabita Rezaire
Frances Enyedy & Tanno Pippi
Kailey Bryan
Yvette Choy
Monstah Black
Paula Pinho Martins Nacif
Theo Meow
Mischa Badasyan
Sara Sowell & Hannah Hiaasen
D.S. Chapman
Elizabeth Milton
Mikey McParlane & Michael Mallis
Valentin Leonardi

✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀ ✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀ ✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀ ✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀ ✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀❋ ❀ ✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀

April was the Ecosex program and many curious individuals packed the house to figure out what exactly this term means to them.  This beautiful screening was in collaboration with the legendary Oster Konferenz. Thank you to Sadie Lune for hosting. The earth loving artists who participated were:

Elliot Hughes
Lz Dunn
Pony Express
Xanthe Dobbie
Jon Henry
Lorna Boschman
Corinne Teed
HYENAZ
Maria F. Dolores
Rubie Knight
Paula Pin
Eva Wǒ
Shelley Etkin & Judy Landkammer
Mischa Badasyan
Kinga Mi & Jadis

✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀ ✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀ ✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀ ✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀ ✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃❋ ❀❋ ❀ ✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀

Queer Age is an upcoming short experimental film curation by myself and my long term partner Ryan Backer. We are an intergenerational partnership with 15 years between us as I am Generation X and they are a Millennial.

Highlighting those who are making the most out of the second half of their lives, this program confirms that growing older is what the luckiest amongst us get to do. Proving that anything is possible in our later years, including deep reflections on earlier years, sage wisdom for tomorrow and private sex parties in the moment. Let us celebrate the joy of living with these compassionately transgressive international films.

Frances Adair Mckenzie/ Zuzu Knew/ Syngja
David Meran
BCRW Videos
Claudia Biçen
Silvia Maggi & Silvia Radicioni
Sarah Mangle
Jordi Estrada
Sasha Wortzel
Jamie Ross
Tony Osso/The Devotion Project
The Golden Brown Girls (Indrani Ashe and Shannon L)
Claire Nolan
Charles Lum & Todd Verow

I finally started a new sound project after a couple of years of concentrating on my Scream Choir and Fake Orgasm Choir! It’s called The Awful Plastics! We played a show already and recorded and will play in Hamburg In June at Blurred Edges festival joined with Misha Yom and Sumi Jang.  We play plastics inside trash islands installations. We are an environmental project. Plastic lasts for 450-1,000 years. Plastics are not disposable, they are awful. Here’s a photo of us rehearsing. Members left to right – Jean P’ark, Hannah Levin et moi!

My one time performance Chimeras featuring performance artists Emilio Rojas, Mev Luna and Lailye Weidman from Out of Site Chicago screened at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2017 as part of the Wildlings Program curated by Anna Helme.

I have joined the visioning board at this amazing new space in Brandenburg called Betonest. Artists, take advantage of this one of a kind opportunity as it will last perhaps only for 2 years. So the time is NOW. Create your own residency anytime, alone, or with others.

Here at Betonest Jean, Alex, Winnie and I will run a female and LGBTI sound art residency late August. More information on this here. This residency will be free of charge for all performers of my annual residency fundraiser called Witch Rave on Insel Treptow. We also welcome any experimental sonic performance artists to perform or participate.

June 3rd my film screenings move into the museum! Lo Pecado of COVEN and I will be presenting The Femmosphere at The Schwules Museum*

Lo Pecado and Coral Short will host a selection of short, tough, and tender films that celebrate, revere, and give insight into femininity. From the dystopian lens of Femmes- challenged by invisibility, misogyny (regardless of genitals), and emotional labor- to the utopian gaiety of fabulous Femme magic, come revel with us in the many facets of Femme. Join us in witnessing the witchy powers and healing energies of femme from deep inside the museum. Femme-admirers and -appreciators very welcome to enter the Femmosphere. DOORS 8 FILMS 9

I am also officially on the planning team for the PPF Festival and running the SPEKTRUM venue with my best friend Alex again this year. Please apply for performing and with your new films by June 30! Very simple application form here.

Also in amazing news! I am curating this September at Transcreen. More details to come but it is a program of non binary video artists called Genderclear.

falling into winter

since ponderosa residency i have been laying low on the art front gathering my strength and settling into my bones and cells taking care of my chosen and blood families in berlin, pacific northwest and montreal.

OCTOBER

on october 5 I curated my last curation in my series of 9 curations in berlin called EXCESS full of incredible artists

Rui Hu
Jess Mac
Ryan Backer
Ellen Nielsen
Tif Robinette
Liz Rosenfeld
Jason Penney
Morgan Paige
Abigail Gnash
Rose Gheaustly
Shawné Michaelain Holloway

on october 7 Mother my collab with Pippi Zornoza screened in NYC at Hidden Valley curated by Tif Robinette

in october i had the honour of joining the Berlin Porn Film Festival team helping my best friend Alex from Athens run the SPEKTRUM venue. i also had the joy of helping to support performers Thirst for Revenge and Bassano at the magical Altes Finanzum during the festival. it was wonderful to see so many familiar faces from around the world there!

NOVEMBER

i flew into Montreal for my dear friends Lisa Gamble and Johnny Forever‘s opening at Les Htmlles (so proud of them!) and a special screening at my favourite video distributors GIV which here i am below looking extremely delighted at with the wonderful Nikki Forrest and my energy drink to keep me up from the jet lag! and was so deeply wonderful to see my collaborators again Angela Gabereau and Lamathilde in the photobooth and IRL quality time. i am still in love with montreal city of my heart forever and always ❤

an interesting part of my social artistic practice that has emerged lately using my curatorial skills are two epic events called Queer Healing Berlin run and Queer Healing Montreal. my close family helps me run these events my art assistant Russell Louder and gay husband Troy Davis in montreal and here in berlin my boy Ryan Backer and my other best friend Miriam Siebenstädt. i created these events due to the USA femme suicides in my life in the last year which still continues to break many of our hearts.

December one of my Witch Rave curation screened in Athens Greece here! A big thank you to Alex for presenting these works.

this incredible oil portrait of me was completed this year by Chris Woods in my Plush performance outfit in Paris

oh and I made my first magazine cover! in newfoundland one of my favourite places to visit in the whole wide world. if you’ve never seen my piece Croning click here

FEBRUARY

GAY INCANTATIONS is making a comeback to fight queer depression and suicide after a hiatus of many years. Lucas Crawford and i are joined by Celeste Chan of San Francisco, Elliat  Graney-Saucke from Seattle and Kristy Harcourt from Edmonton. the designers of this project are Nabeela Vega of Boston, Nico Lim of Singapore and Tabitha Swanson of Berlin. this project will enter the facebook feed to intercept the gloomy days of February. It will also exist here on our tumblr:  https://gayincantations.tumblr.com/:

above design by Nabeela, text by me inspired by Leonard Cohen R.I.P.

i did the set up for Forum Expanded for the third year in a row which is a delight to construct walls, and install sound and video with such an amazingly talented queer team as part of the Berlinale.

after this Miriam Siebenstädt and i run the first ever media arts residency at Quecke called Hibernate. this year begins my first year running art residencies. i do this because of the incredible vast and beautiful accessible countryside venues that i have networked with over the last year. i will also be running a sound residency called murmurs  with Miriam and Winnie in august at Betonest. we are laying residency roots hopefully for years to come! so do apply 🙂

Hibernate is pleased to announce a dynamic group of creators for the first year of our multi-media artist residency program at Quecke:

Alex Demetriou (performance artist/ curator)

Anna GM (writer)
http://annaannaannagm.tumblr.com/writing.

Elliot Hughes (filmmaker)
elliothughes.net

Eshan Rafi (artist)
eshanrafi.com

Jean P’ark (sound artist)
http://miriamsiebenstaedt.tumblr.com/

Jet Moon (writer/ performance artist/ filmmaker)
https://jetmoon.org/

Han Van Acoleyen (filmmaker)
https://hanvanacoleyen.com/

Michelle Yom (musician)

Thomas Anthony Owens (dance)

_________

MARCH

my boy Ryan and i will be travelling to Glitch to support Europe’s first QTPOC film festival. he will cook for the organizers and i will drive everyone from the airport to their accommodations. this festival is run by my long time best friend and performance art partner.

MAY

in other exciting news i will be giving a workshop at Sound Acts in Athens Greece May 26-28.

Human Noise Workshop
By Coral Short

Welcome to a cathartic experience you will never forget.  What noises can you make alone? We are curious to hear them! What happens when you mix noises together in different combinations with new friends? With interesting variations? In whispers? crescendo? with brave and surprising spontaneity? The full range of deep human emotions will be embodied ephemerally. Fascinating montages of human communication inside unique sonic moments will emerge.  We will also be working with the breath, silence, listening and the staying in the present moment which will enrich our experiments. All  workshop attendees are warmly invited to make a live performance at some point during Sound Acts

BERLIN IS QUEER

I have spent the last nine months of my artist life in Berlin. Full of ups and downs, it has been amazing overall! In Vancouver, when my beloved father drove me to the airport, there was a giant fat rainbow touching the ground before I boarded the plane. When the plane rose into the air, a cloud flare appeared – a circular rainbow – which travelled with me for over an hour, hovering right next to the plane window.

I am writing this from a queer performance artist residency at Ponderosa, which is about an hour from Berlin. Zeph, Miriam and I biked here from the train and but what should appear? Another rainbow, finally! I feel like these rainbows have all been signs telling me I am on the right path choosing to follow my dreams- which has been both totally scary and completely fulfilling. My father is from London, U.K., my mother from L.A. California, and I was born on Vancouver Island in Canada. I am lucky for this, and I have taken both my passport privilege and job as curator seriously this year, curating nine new video programs.

Sadly I got my heart broken immediately upon arriving in Berlin. But luckily I filmed myself crying the whole month of January, which turned into very handy footage when RT Collective commissioned me to make work for their new In Your Pocket Curation for Inside Out in Toronto on the theme of Dear Diary. I edited a new film in Copenhagen called For the Heartbroken.

But back to happier news…

For my 43rd birthday this year a new friend of mine, Alex, found out that I have finally entered the realm of wikipedia! If you have any corrections to this entry please feel free to add. What an honour – thank you Carla Henkel.

Also during January I got to work on an amazing project called Forum Expanded which consists of huge video screen installations created by artists from all over the world.

I have never independently curated so much in my life as I have in Berlin! Over the last decade I have been working with many artists from North America and it gives me such joy to bring their aesthetics and politics all the way to Berlin, which does indeed seem to be the centre of the queer universe right now. Please click on each curation below to see the amazing artists I have had the honour of working with.

TRIGGER WARNING, co-presented with COVEN

FUTURE VISIONS, co-presented with COVEN again. THANK YOU to the amazing COVEN. Picture below of the cuties of COVEN:

TRANSFORMATION at The SPEKTRUM. Local Honey still here:

PLEASUREPAIN, Silver Future during the Easter Conference

MAGICK, Silver Future

FLIP FOR FEMME, co-curated with Sadie Lune at Raumerweiterungshalle which was incredibly packed! What a lovely night. Sadie is my loving and loveable platonic wife here in Berlin:

I created a new evolving bill for Queeristan, Amsterdam, Netherlands which I think I will name ‘Healing is Not Linear’ This bill will travel to New York in October with Abed Haddad!

I was commissioned to create a new curation called PUMPED which was a part of conteS/Xting SPORT at NGBK which screened at GEGEN,  Bethanien and with COVEN at Kleiner Salon. Thank you to the Canadian Embassy for their support. Here’s half of the team I worked with at NGBK for a few months! Imtiaz, Caitlin, Zeljko, Jared and Steffy:

Huge thank you to all my techs who made my screenings possible especially Alex Tsoli, Cat Barich, Yuen Ka Lai, Kata at Silver Future, Lorena Juan Gutierrez, and Judy Landkammer, as well as Anika from Raumerweiterungshalle.

I also got to curate Love is Like the Weather again for Gender & Performance(s) Studies at Concordia University in Montréal, Québéc. And to top it off my curation was the final exam! This is a first for sure. Thank you to Dr. Fraser for organizing this!

My largest event in my life (to date) occurred last month. It was called WITCH RAVE, named after an amazing short film by Canadian friends Helen Reed and Hana Jickling, who allowed me to use the name for the new curation. 1,000 people came to WITCH RAVE on Insel!!! an astounding amount of different communities converged on this magical isle for about 50 local and international performance artists, filmmakers, DJs and VJS. Thank you so much everyone for coming and for everyone who created work, videos and sets for this event. Huge thanks to Queeries organizers Shelley and Kata for helping me co-run this event. Also huge shout outs to Miriam and Luca for being so steady before and throughout. We were able to fund about 20 queer artists to go on a ten day residency to expand their research and practices at Ponderosa, which is no small miracle.

Outside my newfound life as a curator, Fake Orgasm Choir came into being at the Køpi squat. Here’s a picture of us in the green room/climbing room 🙂

Sound artists featured above (missing Sara Neidorf) included Cat Barich, Lianne Hall, Kay Garnellen, Sirona, Aubrey Hike, Terril Scott, Atlanta Athens, Nel Fragner, Johanna Bronk, Alex Tsoli, Skyler Braeden Fox and Pol Merchan.

Here’s our video by my dear friend Yuen Ka Lai:

We will also be performing at the Lido for a Bildweschel Cabaret with Les Reines Prochaines on Saturday September 24 at 8pm. I have been working with this amazing archives and organization for almost fifteen years now. Also- let me know if you would like to join- we have space in the choir! More info here 

FAKE ORGASM CHOIR performed at Sudblock with Kay Garnellen for Gender is a Spectrum book launch and also at the Hydra benefit at Möbel Olfe back in February and March. Thank you to all the wonderful people who have been a part of this project, you bring such authentic ecstatic ritual to this sound work!

I am very much enjoying the Queeries art residency right now, it feels like the first time I have rested in the last nine months of the intense Berlin hustle! We are working on all sorts of new performance and dance practices and introducing each other to our vast and varied skill sets. It is a fascinating exchange of minds here through workshops and conversations. It is the first ever official queer residency here and hopefully it will be an annual event, along with WITCH RAVE. Winnie Superhova was the first person to tell me about this intriguing local, and to bring me here. Thanks Winnie! Also huge thanks to Liz Rosenfeld for introducing me to COVEN, who then hosted my screenings and invited me to Queeries.

We will presenting some of our now-evolving end results September 16-18 at Ausland back in Berlin.

Also I have enjoyed many local countryside trips outside the buzz of Berlin. There are two locations I enjoy to rest my weary bones and mind to finally begin to edit my films again! One is a cottage of a dear friend near a lake in Deetz, and the other is Quecke, where I hope to lead a winter residency next year called Hibernate.

Here is the new film I have been working on in Deetz: it was a truly beautiful collaboration with Tamir Lederberg which will be ready this month!

In random other news!

AWESOME news of SCREAM CHOIR being one of the many actions which helped to make abortion legal and accessible in PEI! This incarnation was conducted by Russell Louder!!!!!

Back to some SAD news, Edgy Women is no more and my 2009 unicorn group performance Guardian showed in the closing event. This is a feminist festival I have worked with for almost ten years. Big thank you to k.g. guttman for this photo. And the hugest thanks to everyone at Edgy Women for believing in me for all these years and helping me grow up as a performance artist. I would not be the same artist without you!  ❤

Not completely art related, but also art related, as many artists come to the sits – I have been leading Queer Meditation in Berlin in English every Sunday at 10 am. I also was pleased to offer a sit for COVEN for their Labour not Labour Festival.

SCREENINGS

My performative video work – The Party’s Over has been curated twice by Dayna Mcleod at both VIVO and Video Pool Media Arts Centre in celebration of Groupe Intervention Vidéo (GIV)‘s 40th Anniversary. The curation was called Gestures of Performativity. GIV, my video distributors, are advocates, supporters and promoters of women working with Video Art and was founded in Montreal in 1975. GIV, with its multifaceted mandate to distribute, present, and produce independent videos, is one of the rare artist-run centres throughout the world dedicated to the development and promotion of works created by women.

Diamonds screened at Frauen Film Festival, Cologne, Germany

Arrangement was on CAN TV! in Chicago as part of a Video Video Zine project and also at Berlin Feminist Film Week

Between us was at CROSSROADS in both San Francisco and Minneapolis in the curation – thank your body for its strength and power.

Mother was screened in Chicago as part of a bill entitled No Gods No Masters, Video Video Zine, Chicago, USA.

My wearable textiles performance Chimeras by Laura Mitchell premiered as part of a Out of Site Screening, Chicago, USA

Lesbian Hand Gestures was in a show called  SEX HABITS curated by Rebecca Ladida at  In/habit in The Archer Ballroom, Chicago, USA.

Robot Boi is also screening again at DEEP TRASH from Outer Space, London, U.K. October 22

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

I AM IN A BOOK!

In an article by Karin Cope, entitled “They aren’t a boy or a girl, they are mysterious: Finding possible futures in loving animals and aliens.’ That article will be collected in a work entitled Desiring Change:Contemporary Feminist Art in Canada that MAWA [Mentoring Artists for Women’sArt] and McGill-Queen’s University Press are preparing for publication. The work should appear in the course of 2017. MQUP is provisionally planning a print run of 800 copies in hardcover, to be priced at $49.95.

 

VANCOUVER NEW YORK DRESDEN CHARLOTTETOWN CHICAGO LONDON MONTREAL BERLIN

VANCOUVER QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL

These photos below are of my performance ‘Stop Beating Yourself Up‘ are painful to look at now! I suffered a severe concussion from my performance at The Vancouver Queer Arts Festival which I am still recovering from 6 months later. Thank you for all the healing vibes everyone sent to me from across the world.  Contrary to popular belief, the blood was fake and I didn’t hit myself hard BUT it was the multiple light blows to the head that did me in. Don’t do this at home folks! Photos below by Belle Ancell. More photos can be seen here by Katie Stewart and Fenner Rumble.  Please stop beating yourselves up! For real! I have! This performance will never be repeated ever again.  Thank you to Winnie Superhova for assisting me and Hugs for being my paramedic and huge hugs to Terry my platonic brosband and Ray Tardigrade for aftercare.

 

 

 

In Vancouver I was delighted to put together TRIGGER WARNING. This was a challenging and transformative experience as a curator. I created a strong bill of mostly North American video artists followed by a discussion facilitated by Gwen Haworth. Graphic Design by Nabeela Vega.

Check out my hyper talented artists:

Claire Arctander
Isabelle Frances McGuire
Vika Kirchenbauer
Jade Yumang
Jesika Joy
Sarah Hill & Creighton Baxter
Patty Chang
Morgan M Page
Kimura Byol
Jenny Lin
Philip Huang
Jacqueline Mary
Eduardo Restrepo
Mée Rose & Leanne Lapspace

▽

▽

▽

 

CHICAGO

It was my first time in Chicago! I had the joy of creating a new wearable textiles work entitled Chimeras for the Out of Site Chicago Festival. I also had the honour of working with fellow performance artists Emilio Rojas, Mev Luna and dancer Lailye Weidman. I was assisted by my good friend Nabeela Vega who helped me incredibly as my concussion was still very strong.

▽

▽

▽

ART IN THE OPEN

Ice Dreams:  Coral Short, Jackson Martin and Russell Louder collaborated to create fresh cool contemporary edible art infused with spells – inventing several kinds of ice cream to feed the public within this town is small project‘s marketplace. The ice cream was bursting with a fascinating range of mood changing ingredients. Making wishes is an act of magic that we invited the audience to partake in – creating a sense of hope and well-being. View photos here taken by Veronique Mystique. Graphic design by Nabeela Vega. Thanks to Juls Generic for letting us create an ice cream factory in Halifax!

At this extraordinary festival Art in the Open in P.E.I. I did three performances in one day (plus handing out 500 portions of Ice Dreams which I have to say with the concussion was a miracle!) My teenage assistant Russell Louder performed Plush and I live streamed it internationally with Periscope. Big ups to  my curator Becka Viau who was wonderful to me throughout the festival. I cannot recommend this festival enough!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I collaborated for Scream Choir AND Laugh Choir with Sarah Wendt. Thank goodness for collaborations! Huge thanks to my collaborators as I couldn’t of pulled off four performance without them!

▽

▽

▽

HAMILTON

In Hamilton I performed Nest (with a concussion) at Supercrawl. Huge thanks to my assistants Mee Rose and Alvis Parsley for performing Plush for me as my doctor would not allow me to perform. And huge shout out to my platonic wife Sarah Fuchs for coming out from Toronto to give me love and moral support.

▽

▽

▽

ARTIST RESIDENCY

For the month of October I did a ceramics residency at Creations Li Studio. It was such a healing experience because I was off the internet and working with clay was very good for my brain. Also the company was AMAZING 😉

▽

▽

▽

DRESDEN GERMANY

Future Visions was one of the two pieces selected by our curators from Les Htmlles last year to travel to the CYNETART FESTIVAL in Dresden Germany. New sparkles now when you move the mouse! and a special one card spread for mobile phones all thanks to my genius collaborator Angela Gabereau.

FUTURE VISIONS ALSO IN OTHER WORLDS ZINE

Hand screen printed by Vanessa Adams

▽

▽

▽

MIX NYC

I curated Love is Like the Weather at Mix and I have to say I am very proud of this bill. It has morphed through time and runs tight and smooth now. It was incredible to have so many talented filmmakers up on the stage with me doing Q & A. I am honoured to work with these contemporary video art superstars:  Raphaële Frigon, lamathilde, GAYMOUS, Shayo Detchema, Nabeela Vega , Vincent Chevalier, Malic Amalya, Nikki Forrest, Dayna McLeod and Jackie Gallant, Sofia Moreno, Elisha Lim and Raven Davis, Rae Spoon & Chelsea McMullan, larose s. larose, Eduardo Restrepo Castaño & Nash Glynn, Joshua Vettivelu, Kristin Li, and M. O’Herlihy. Many of the artists got scouted by other curators which I am thrilled by. In more miraculous news this bill is being brought into the university classroom for Gender and Performance at Concordia University in April taught by D.J. Fraser and the students’ final exam will be based on these ground breaking filmmakers!!!

▽

▽

▽

❤ BACK TO CHICAGO ❤

I am so in love with Chicago and had two shows in December there ON THE SAME DAY which was unbelievable! Arrangement screened at curation put on by Video Video Zine

 

Nabeela Vega and I performed our new piece entitled YOU curated by Duos by means of the Periscope ap projected onto Nabeela’s body. This event was curated by Mothergirl and  Anja Morell at the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Vega and I slowly fed each other rose petals through the screen – celebrating one year of platonic love. We have been there for each other through many life occurrences and continue to stand side by side, strong in our platonic romance.

▽

▽

▽

BERLIN TIMES

I am living part time in Berlin now and am curating monthly film screenings. If you think you have anything to offer to these programs: FEMININITY, MAGIC, TRANSFORMATION and EXCESS please do! April – September bills still have some space.

▽

The first bill in the series will be the TRIGGER WARNING bill January 29 and the second bill will be QUEER FUTURES curated out of  the Future Visions project on February 26. I have always wanted to show some of my favourite future visions so I am very excited to present this bill. These first two bills will be hosted by the magical  BERLIN COVEN.

▽

For the PLEASUREPAIN

bill in March at Silver Future I am pleased to announce filmmakers Jacqueline Mary and Mee Rose will be in attendance for Q & A.

▽

I am doing my first performance ever at the Kopi’s Queer Gala – the most wild and radical queer cabaret in Berlin on February 25. I am collaborating with Aubrey Heichemer who I have known for 5 years back when we lived in the Bay Area together. She has the skillset to conduct for our new project… and strangely everyone we have asked to be in our FAKE ORGASM CHOIR is up for it! People are less shy than I thought. This piece will be dedicated to sex workers.

▽