Teeing Up for the Extended Run of Swingers: The Art of Minigolf

If you’ve ever found yourself swinging away on a minigolf course, maybe trying to hit a golf ball across a pirate ship or through Homer Simpson’s mouth, the words “subversive”, “rule-breaking” and “radical” probably weren’t the first to spring to mind. But this popular game has surprising origins.

The St Andrews Ladies’ Putting Club, founded in Scotland in 1867, is usually cited as the world’s first minigolf club. The story goes that the women formed their own putting club after being sidelined from the links, as their presence was deemed “unladylike” and distracting to male golfers. The minigolf craze – which also undercut class barriers to membership of the elite traditional clubs – soon spread through the UK and made its way to the US. The sport took off in Black enclaves like Harlem, as well as the Jim Crow South, and became the site of battles over desegregation around the nation in the 1940s and ’50s.

Swingers: The Art of Minigolf is here to remind us of the game’s historic roots. Devised by Rising senior curator Grace Herbert, the exhibition – whose extended season runs until September 21 – takes over the Flinders Street Station ballroom with nine minigolf holes created by female and nonbinary artists, including Miranda July, Saeborg, Soda Jerk and Kaylene Whiskey.

When you arrive, you’ll head to the check-in area to register your team and collect your golf balls and putters. While you wait to begin the course, you might grab a drink from the bespoke Maker’s Mark clubhouse bar, have a go at the practise hole, or pick up a trivia card and work your way through questions about rule-breaking women throughout history.

To get you prepped and excited, here’s our guide to each of the nine holes and the artists behind them.

Hole one: Ananyi – Travelling

Artist: Kaylene Whiskey
Story: Kungka kunpu (strong women) are at the heart of two-time Archibald finalist Kaylene Whiskey’s vibrant style. This hole is inspired by Whiskey’s memories of Greyhound bus road trips as a young girl.
Highlights: Icons like Cathy Freeman, Dolly Parton and Tina Turner come together in a desert landscape, all set to a playlist of joyful Indigenous rock.

Hole two: Hole of the Simian Crone

Artist: Natasha Tontey
Story: This hole returns to the themes of Indonesian artist Natasha Tontey’s 2024 exhibition Primate Visions, exploring “primate mythologies, human-animal kinship and feminist futurisms” through the lens of Minahasan culture.
Highlights: A solid step up in difficulty from hole one, this is definitely a tonal shift from Whiskey’s colourful desert party. As you putt around the obstacles, you’re surrounded by unsettling music, decapitated monkeys and sculpted entrails.

Hole three: Faceoff

Artist: Pat Brassington
Story: The Australian photo-media artist has said she aims to capture images that lie “just off the verge of normality”. That’s certainly what she’s created with the disquieting Faceoff. This hole was partly inspired by a 2008 performance by renowned Australian artist Mike Parr, in which he sat with his head emerging from a titled wooden stage for 36 hours, without food or sleep.
Highlights: The eerie face – like a laughing clown at a carnival game, but without the face paint – turns from left to right in an endless loop. Place your ball onto the ramp and aim for the head.

Hole four: Square peg, round hole. NO!

Artist: Delaine Le Bas
Story: British Romani mixed-media artist Delaine Le Bas’s work explores concepts of identity and belonging, and the ongoing mistreatment and misrepresentation of the Romani community. This hole plays on the idiom of a “square peg in a round hole”, and the linguistic paradox of a “square ball”, to animate the experience of navigating social systems as an outsider.
Highlights: Swap out your regular golf ball for a cubic “ball” just for this round. Hitting a cube across a flat surface is more fiddly than you might think; with this hole, you have to think differently.

Hole five: Algorithmic K-Holes and the Techno-Serfdom of Simulated Entrapment Under Slop Capitalism

Artist: Soda Jerk
Story: Australian punk video-art duo Soda Jerk samples clips from existing films to create raucous, hyperreal new works. Here, the pair have sampled everything from Teletubbies to Skibidi Toilet to early 2000s golf tutorial videos, then fed them through AI to create a never-ending film that leaves the viewer feeling distinctly off.
Highlights: Watch the hallucinatory film unfold on an endless loop as you stand by the door waiting your turn; you’ll still be trying to make sense of what you’ve seen even after you hit the ball over the ramp, around the corner and into the hole.

Hole six: Animal Golf

Artist: Saeborg
Story: Saeborg is a Japanese performance artist working in latex to create her half-human, half-toy cyborg alter ego. Her rubbery costumes and sculptures cast a critical eye on gender stereotypes, animal welfare and identity.
Highlights: Put your putter away, don a latex animal tail and work as a team to get the foam balls into the tree using your body. It’s a highly original and very silly take on minigolf that will have you reconsidering the human-animal divide.

Hole seven: Domestica

Artist: Nabilah Nordin
Story: How can we transform everyday objects into something previously unimagined? This question is key to Singaporean Australian artist Nabilah Nordin’s art practice. Made of timber and an abundance of baguettes, Domestica was inspired by the architecture of the historic Flinders Street Ballroom.
Highlights: Marvel at the grandiose structure, comprised of more than 800 handmade and preserved baguettes. Keep a close eye on the ball – the timber flooring subtly dips and rises at unexpected angles, making for an unpredictable putting experience.

Hole eight: Swamp Flower

Artist: Bktherula
Story: Here, Atlanta-based singer and rapper Bktherula collaborates with Melbourne DJ, composer and sound artist Kate Miller to bring a sonic dimension to minigolf. This work encourages players to take the scenic route by rewarding exploration and play with an interactive soundscape.
Highlights: Speakers placed inside the flowers react to movement, creating a calming sound garden as you putt your way through the hole.

Hole nine: Wave of Fortune

Artist: Miranda July
Story: Writer, artist and filmmaker Miranda July flips the typical minigolf experience on its head, encouraging you to relinquish control. Hit your ball up into the wave, then simply wait and see where it goes rather than worrying about getting it into the hole. Read the flag that lights up to learn your fortune.
Highlights: No matter what shot you take, your ball will travel down a path tells your fortune. By this measure, everyone’s a winner! That is, until you check the scorecard.

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This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Rising. Swingers: The Art of Minigolf is open from Wednesday to Sunday until September 21. Tickets are available now.