queer
''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...
Canadian multimedia artist and curator. Based in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, they are best known for their performance art, as a curator of short film programs, and as a creator of affordable queer artist residencies.Jordan Arsen. Edgy Women Blog. "Play like a Caterpillar, Sting like a Butterfly: Coral Short.
and obtained their master's degree in fine art at the
Chelsea School of Art
Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation.
It offers further and higher educat ...
. They use textiles, video, nature, and their own body as their media. 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 NYC is a not-for-profit organization based in New York City and dedicated to queer experimental film. It is also known as the "MIX festival," for its most visible program, the annual New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival (NYLGEFF) ...
Queer Arts Festival
The Queer Arts Festival is a multi-disciplinary arts festival produced annually in Vancouver, British Columbia.Dyke March
A dyke march is a lesbian visibility and protest march, much like the original Gay Pride parades and gay rights demonstrations. The main purpose of a dyke march is the encouragement of activism within the lesbian community. Dyke marches c ...
es in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
, and
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. Short identifies as a
third-wave feminist
Third-wave feminism is an iteration of the feminist movement that began in the early 1990s, prominent in the decades prior to the fourth-wave feminism, fourth wave. Grounded in the civil-rights advances of the second-wave feminism, second wave, G ...
and is notable within the
craftivism
Craftivism is a form of activism, typically incorporating elements of anti-capitalism, environmentalism, solidarity, or third-wave feminism, that is centered on practices of craft - or what has traditionally be referred to as "domestic arts". Craf ...
movement. They describe this work as "a slow, thoughtful activism nda strong powerful display of resistance". ''Stop Beating Yourself Up'', first performed in 2013 at
Edgy Women
The Edgy Women Festival (also referred to as Edgy Redux, Femmes Au-delà or Women from the Edge) was an annual festival of "short, highly physical works by women, often characterized by a transdisciplinary approach and politicized content." which ...
Queer Arts Festival
The Queer Arts Festival is a multi-disciplinary arts festival produced annually in Vancouver, British Columbia.
''Scream Choir'' is 2014 a sound piece consisting of a large group of people screaming in the formation of a traditional choir. ''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. ''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. 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
FYTA (Greek: ΦΥΤΑ, meaning plants) are an Athens-based conceptual art and performance art duo. Their work problematises Greek identity and nationalism. FYTA's work combines different media and disciplines mostly operating within the wider fram ...
in Athens, Greece.
'' Future Visions'' is a 2014 work presented as a website of over 100 video tarot cards representing queer voices from Europe and North America. Other performance pieces include ''Gay Incantations'' (2013), ''Nest'' (2014), 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. In 2017, they received a grant from Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa to pay 115 of the video artists they curated that year.
In 2018, they began a series of short eco performance works on their Instagram. They also facilitated three plant based ASMR workshops with Jean P'ark at
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Martin-Gropius-Bau, commonly known as Gropius Bau, is an important exhibition building in Berlin, Germany. Originally a museum of applied arts, the building has been a listed historical monument since 1966. It is located at 7 Niederkirchnerstraà ...
* ''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
Inside may refer to:
* Insider, a member of any group of people of limited number and generally restricted access
Film
* ''Inside'' (1996 film), an American television film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Eric Stoltz
* ''Inside'' (2002 f ...
. In 2014, Short withdrew ''We Don't Want to Marry'' from the
Vancouver Queer Film Festival
Out On Screen (formally the Vancouver Out On Screen Film & Video Society) is an LGBT-oriented arts organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It began as a small, community-based film festival in 1988 and was registered as a BC soc ...
program because the festival accepted advertising from a pro-Israel group Yad b'Yad.Natasha Barsotti. "UPDATE: Queer film festival criticized for pro-Israel program ad". DailyXtra. 14 August 2014