Everyone from serious art lovers to kids could enjoy Brisbane Powerhouse’s new minigolf course as they knock a square ball into a round hole, take a trip to the arcade, navigate a baguette fortress and crest a wave to have their future told.
Curated by artist Grace Herbert, Swingers: the art of mini golf is both exhibition and game, pushing the boundaries with conceptual artworks you can putt on.
Each of the nine holes was designed by different rebellious female artists, paying tribute to the rebellion through which mini golf was first invented in 19th Century Scotland.
Fed up with being told that swinging a club was “unladylike”, a group of Scotswomen made their own game by creating a putting course.
Mini golf would continue to subvert societal expectations a century later during America’s civil rights movement, when a course in Washington became one of the first public recreational facilities to be desegregated.
It is fitting then that hole one, created by Kaylene Whiskey, celebrates an Australian Indigenous woman’s experience of sport as the Iwantja Tigers’ softball team captain, featuring other kungka kunpu (strong women) as well.
Unusual pairings at other holes make for a fascinating experience – like visuals of the Teletubbies and The Shining with the Severance theme tune, in an unnerving critique of digital “slop” capitalism by Australian artist duo Soda Jerk (although scary elements are only hinted at and will go over kids’ heads).
Or, animal tails and human bodies, like in Japanese artist Saeborg’s rethinking of the human-animal divide, where you strap a tail to your waist and swing it in place of a putter.
Meanwhile Minahasan artist Natasha Tontey utilises symbols of primates, including the Simian Crone from Planet of the Apes and the Yaki (black-crested macaque) from her own Indonesian culture to examine femininity and otherness in a colourful and lively course.
In Delaine Le Bas’ work ruminating on the experience of those who don’t fit in, golfers have an even playing field as they hit a cube into the hole across an optical-illusory green.
Also playing with concepts of self, Australian photo-media artist Pat Brassington has created a course where players hit their ball into a fairground-style rotating head, which determines where the ball will land.
Nabilah Nordin invites audiences to appreciate the beauty that can come from mundane repetitive labour, with a course made of over 800 salt dough replica baguettes.
One of the holes to focus on the player’s sense of hearing, Atlanta-based musician BKTHERULA has collaborated with Melbourne-based sound artist Kate Miller to create a dreamy soundscape where golfers can interact with large white flowers to produce music.
The final hole replaces competition with a reading of your fate in Miranda July’s wave of fortune – which current your ball is carried along on will reveal your destiny.
Is an oddball, one-of-a-kind game of golf in your future?
