| Communiqué de Presse POUR PUBLICATION IMMÉDIATE English follows Montréal, le 15 mai 2005. L’artiste montréalaise Kat Coric participera à la Tom of Finland Foundation Art Fair qui aura lieu à New York du 20 au 22 mai 2005. La foire se tiendra au Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center situé au 208 Ouest 13e rue, entre la 7e et la 8e Avenue. L’horaire des activités est la suivante: Réception d’ouverture le vendredi 20 mai de 20h à 23h, exposition le samedi 21 mai de 12h à 18h et le dimanche 22 mai de 14h à 19h. Kat Coric est une artiste et une activiste reconnue pour son implication dans la cause du SIDA. Son travail touche les aspects de la santé liés au milieu de la sous culture des clubs de nuit. Elle a récemment publié, en mai 2005, des articles dans les périodiques Circuit Noize (ci-joint) et ToBe. Elle travaille présentement avec Jean-Pierre Pérusse du groupe Radical 5 à la production d’une vidéo d’information sur le crystal meth dont la sortie est prévue pour le mois d’août 2005.
Press Release Montreal May 15 2005: Montreal Artist Kat Coric will be participating in the Tom of Finland Foundation Art Fair, New York City, May 20-22, 2005. The Fair will be held at The Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center, 208 West 13th Street between 7th & 8th. The dates and times are as follows: Friday, May 20, Opening Reception 8:00-11:00PM, Saturday viewing from noon to six pm, Sunday from 2:00-7:00PM. For more information on the Fair you may call: (212) 620-7310. Coric is a well known artist and AIDS activist, whose work revolves around health issues pertaining to underground club culture. She has recently published articles in Circuit Noize Magazine (May 2005) and ToBe Magazine (May 2005). -30- Contact: Source: The ladies like gay erotic art too By Gerard Robinson Article taken from: www.nyblade.com Montreal artist Kat Coric is happily married — to a man. But she’ll be at the Center next weekend exhibiting at the Erotic Art Fair. As one of the few women, Coric points out that most of her clients, friends and even acquaintances are gay. Coric’s paying jobs usually involve gay health issues — safe sex or drug use. Her work eroticizes safer sex, but her interests go far beyond her canvases. She’s been instrumental in implementing “harm reduction” in gay clubs and at circuit parties, where she has mounted AIDS prevention campaigns that dispensed booklets on the dangers of party drugs and offered free vaccinations for Hepatitis A and B. “I’m not gay but I could play a gay man on TV,” she laughs. “My life revolves around gay men who act like big brothers to me. It’s a comfortable niche for me. Gay men believe in me and listen to what I have to say unlike a lot of straight men who may seek some kind of sexual involvement.” Coric is one of 40 artists whose work will be on display at the Fifth Annual New York City Erotic Art Fair, presented by the Tom of Finland Foundation. Her “Blue Bump” depicts the outline of a male torso with a “bumper” (used to sniff drugs) where the penis should be. The work is intended to remind viewers that “bumpers” can deliver blood borne pathogens if they are shared and should be considered just as potentially dangerous as an unsheathed penis. With a participation rate of only 10 percent, heterosexual female artists and patrons nevertheless are one of the groups that make up a surprisingly heterogenous mix of people who attend the fair. Durk Dehner, director of the Tom of Finland Foundation, admits that heterosexual men are a harder sell. “Gay erotic art is so far ahead of its time,” he says. “There’s just no straight counterpart. No institutions exist.” The Tom of Finland Foundation was created in 1984 by Touko Laaksonen, a.k.a. Tom of Finland, and Dehner. The original mission was to preserve Tom of Finland’s work for future generations. After the AIDS epidemic claimed the lives of many erotic artists and much of their work was lost or destroyed, the foundation expanded its mandate to preserve the work of all erotic artists. “Erotic art is important because it’s an expression of a basic, fundamental part of who we are,” Dehner says. “Putting sex into a place where it is disassociated and not integrated into the personality is not healthy. That’s what Tom was about — making sex a healthy expression. Specifically Tom of Finland’s work helped gay men be comfortable with their sexuality,” he adds. “It helped them feel complete. He mentored a generation. For example, Tom didn’t like the idea that the top was more of a man than the bottom.” Tom of Finland worked extensively from life as well as from his imagination, Dehner says: “Of course he embellished. Hardly anyone around has the proportions he drew, though more people do now than when Tom first started. He favored deep set eyes, a big forehead and a cleft chin as well as an enormous cock.” Today the permanent collection houses more than 1,500 original works by Tom of Finland and another 1,500 works by hundreds of other artists. Here are some of the works for sale at the upcoming fair:
In addition to Erotic Art Fairs in New York and Los Angeles, The Tom of Finland Foundation, which is based on Los Angeles, conducts a Biennial Emerging Erotic Artist Competition, which gives unknown talents an opportunity to show their work to the public. Artists new to the field are invited to submit their work to an international panel of judges, who award prizes in several categories. The 2005 contest will be in full swing during the New York Fair. The Foundation’s other activities include hosting symposiums and other educational events. There will be a panel discussion entitled “Tom of Finland and Gay Culture” at 3 p.m. on Sunday. Participants include Nayland Blake, chair, International Center of Photography; Thomas Woodruff, Chair, Illustration and Cartooning Department, School of the Visual Arts; and artists David Humphrey and Michael Kirwan. Dehner says the difference between going to the art fair as opposed to an exhibition is that it’s “very personal, more funky, more casual and people tend to stay for a longer period of time.” The fair usually draws about a thousand people and raises about $10,000 in art sales. Article; Kat’s Rant, Circuit Noize Magazine © Kat Coric 2005 Kat’s Rant I knew it was coming. And though I tried, I could not stop it. It was a natural progression, this invasion of my beloved city of Montreal. Like a slow-moving infection, it spread across the border from the south. Dark, insidious, it has crippled our community. Is there anything I can say about crystal meth that hasn’t already been said? There was a time when I felt total apathy for crystal users. I avoided them at all costs. Difficult as it is for me - instead of turning away from tweakers, I now try to engage them. I try to see what makes them grind. I try to plant seeds, full well knowing that the earth here is rather toxic. But I try to be more understanding of the complicated circumstances involved in crystal use. I listen, but I don’t condone the use. In my opinion, all drugs legal and illegal have the potential to be dangerous, but crystal meth is the most harmful I’ve ever seen. It is destructive and unforgiving. So why do we still do it? Are we hurting ourselves intentionally? Is crystal use an act of self-directed civil disobedience? I have too many friends and acquaintances who are revolving around crystal like it’s their sun. It is like the sun in the Greek legend of Icarus. Remember him? He and his father, Daedalus, fled Crete using wings made from feathers and wax. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun. They successfully left Crete on the wings they’d crafted, but Icarus, exhilarated by the thrill of flying, got careless and flew too near the sun. The wax melted and he fell to his death. If you choose to fly, crystal is a sun that sooner or later will entice you to fly too near. The crystal meth experience can be equated to fast food. It’s like when you walk by one of these places and you are seduced by the smell of the fries. That smell lures you in. Against your better judgement you eat the grease-soaked food, only to find that you are sick to your stomach afterwards. Is the party getting super-sized? It is almost like collectively we have a repetitive motion injury of the brain. We all know the history and we know the facts. We’ve all heard the stories from friends and others, yet we refuse to acknowledge them. Are you one of those with the wide eyes? Like a doe in the headlights, you don’t understand what is about to hit you. If you’re one of the professional party people and want to collaborate on creative ways to stop the pandemic contact me at kat.coric@videotron.ca
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