During her time at OSE, Coral became interested in methods of fictioning in relation to objects and spaces. Her work for Gut Feelings departed from research into the archives of Telford New Town (1968) in the West Midlands, the town she grew up un, reflecting on the New Town’s utopian optimism, monuments, architecture and town planning. Through sculpture, animation, video and writing, the work attempted to navigate the town as a fictional landscape through the rounded reptile-mascot like character Grout. The narrative was particularly attuned to the modernist architecture, public artworks, civic spaces, and bizarre sites that underpin the towns construct. In this way, Coral aimed to create an alternative archive attentive to the holes in her personal narrative of the place and playfully interrogate the flimsiness of New Town optimism: ‘Your New Life, New Opportunity’ as a fiction. Dwelling on absurdity: artificial mounds on roundabouts and a frog clock blowing bubbles in the shopping centre, the work questioned what is functional, foundational, fictional and farcical.

Coral also developed a strand of the public programme in collaboration with Melanie Wheeler called Sleepwalks, exploring the role of fiction in relation to objects, place and the performative. The development of this series allowed her to expand her interest in fictioning through experimenting with writing (Sally O’Reilly and Cally Spooner), animation (1927 studios) as well as her experiments in sculpture.

Coral also helped shape the Despacito programme this year and enjoyed working with the group of young people which enthused the playful and intuitive strand of her own practice.