Covid creations and communities

Over the last year I have had the pleasure to work with Winnie Ho, Clara Furey, Be Heintzman Hope, and Brian Mendez on a dance piece called Dog Rising. The piece has morphed and changed over time and we have presented at FTA - Festival TransAmériques and have travelled to Rotterdam and Paris.  

Three celestial bodies launched into orbit vibrate in a lascivious and hypnotic ritual. Dog Rising explores the circulation of physical matter and the passage of vibrations through our bodies.

Here’s a video of the beginning of this beautiful captivating score.

I have been mega crafting to resource myself during covid times. It’s been restorative to get back to my first love, textiles, which I studied at art school. My new series Heartspells, part of a project called Soft Jewels, lives in over 200 homes around the globe. I credit Rosie Lewis from Newcastle, England for gifting me a heart years ago, leading to research around crafted spell hearts throughout different countries and cultures. Each object is full of spells of different combinations of happiness, health, healing, safety, protection, growth, abundance, peace, and joy. It has been a great way to connect with loved ones and strangers during these strange isolating times. Let me know if you want one! I have two walls full to choose from.

I was also featured for this project on an instagram called @queermtl

I participated in a summer window project Connexionze curated by my old friend and neighbour Kimura Byol on St. Hurbert. I created an herb box in front of hir window. I was delighted that ze could enjoy herbs the whole summer. Growing things is a mini revolution, especially for those who have not grown things before. I was in fantastic company of many amazing Montreal artist friends.

Over the pandemic for the New Year and for Spring Equinox I created three events entitled Empty that have to do with cleaning out your inbox. Over the series of events I have come to realize that many humans hoard emails, and those emails are full of emotions. There are emails from exes and dead people. So having the coregulation of the bigger group is extremely helpful in terms of letting go of old emotional baggage. We’ve had many skillful people helping us to learn new digital hygiene around our inboxes. Also- congratulations to the many people who have reached 0 inbox at our events or shortly afterwards. My fourth EMPTY event will be April 16th 9-5pm ET. There will be skilled members of our communities leading stretches and somatics during the event.

Speaking of somatic rituals - Winnie Ho and I were invited to gently open the Fonderie Darling Space to the public after lockdown with our ASMR project Floral Sleep.

CORAL SHORT & WINNIE HO

A relaxation session and a subtle exploration of sounds emitted by nature, in the spirit of ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response). The artist wishes to offer a contemplative and restorative moment where participants are invited to listen to and interact with plant elements. They will experience a slow, delicate and dreamy eco-sensual moment before sharing their experience with the rest of the group.

Coral and Winnie will empower you to create intimate sonic sanctuaries with a plethora of plants and flowers. We will begin with an opening circle, then the performance artists will guide the audience through a relaxing and grounding plant based ASMR meditation. This experience acts as a sonic massage for the parasympathetic nervous system of the body, which creates relaxation and gently helps to slow us down. Different sound combinations and noises offer a multiplicity of feelings and healings via reverberations throughout the body. The participants will split into small groups to learn to give and receive this sonic experience with foliage. The group will have time to give feedback about the sensations of sound offerings afterwards.

My work was written about in a journal! Sexology and Its Afterlives," the new issue of Social Text in which I have an article entitled "Four Gestures Towards a Trans-Mad Aesthetic of Space." by Lucas Crawford

In December I had the honour to be invited to Providence, Rhode Island in the US to test out their solo residency program and give feedback. It was a beautiful karmic gift for all the many residencies I have run outside Berlin at Ponderosa, Betonest, and Quecke. 

The Wedding Cake House Residency, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Let it Go is a multiples/ Textiles/ Soft Sculpture work I created at the Wedding Cake House for exhibition at Dirt Palace, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.

The visceral soft sculptures represent the need for release of our collectively experienced unease and trauma. During COVID we are often forced to face previous behavioral patterns and coping strategies. This healing and humorous work celebrates what we have been able to expel, yet knowing there will always be more.

Humanity avoids facing the shit that is omnipresent within our daily lives. Over the duration of the past year and foreseeable near future we collectively have been swimming through the complexities COVID-19 unleashed upon us. One of our initial reactions was to hoard toilet paper, which has since evolved into more complicated emotional reactions of annoyance, frustration, despair, disgust, denial, grief, and anger.

During the pandemic, individuals began slowly unpacking their traumas once bodies let go a bit aka semi-released from their hypervigilant states. These years have created a period that for many was a time of reflection, exposing individually and collectively experienced inequities.

Thanks to CERB I was able to get the first real art studio of my adult life. I was at Laboland for just over a year creating hearts and poops, but now I am facing Park Jarry in a corner office of a huge, incredibly gorgeous dance studio. I have also started my somatic practice from my studio. I am now moving from Intermediate to Advanced Somatics Experiencing training.

Last but not least! I got an opportunity to mentor a young non binary artist Burdock Root through a Concordia/ Studio XX mentorship program during the last years. It’s been a joy to get to know them. I wish I had had a mentor as a young artist!

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for summer adventures!