Mini-golf might not seem particularly subversive, but the game has radical origins and a surprisingly fascinating history.
Saeborg in costume for Swingers, the show that will transform the Flinders Street Station ballroom and surrounding rooms into a series of mini golf courses.Credit: Simon Schluter
In the middle of the year, Flinders Street Station’s ballroom and surrounds will be transformed into a series of miniature putting greens for visitors to play on. Called Swingers, it’s one of the first events to be announced for Melbourne’s Rising festival.
American filmmaker, writer, and artist Miranda July and acclaimed APY Lands artist Kaylene Whiskey – whose works incorporate pop culture references alongside traditional Anangu culture – will create mini-golf courses with obstacles for the show, as will Japanese artist Saeborg.
Grace Herbert, who loved playing mini-golf as a child in Tasmania, came up with the idea. “Obviously, [it’s] a game that is fun, silly and joyful, but it is sometimes infantilised a bit because of that. It’s actually got this really interesting social and cultural history,” she said.
Invented by Scottish women in the 19th century who weren’t allowed to play golf proper, the sport soon also attracted men. The clubhouses attached to the mini-golf greens became the place to be, and there’s a nod to that idea with a club-style bar on site.
Swingers curator Grace Herbert with Saeborg in costume.Credit: Simon Schluter
In the United States in the 1930s and ’40s, the game became popular with African-American communities and during the Prohibition era, with about 50,000 mini-golf courses across the US. A course in Boston was the first public recreation facility in the US to be desegregated.
Based in Tokyo, the artist Saeborg (a mix of her real name, Saeko, and cyborg) creates art exploring gender and sexuality, making and wearing latex costumes, but mostly of creatures rather than humans.
For Rising, it wasn’t practical for participants to wear a full costume, so she made ears and tails of different forest animals. The tail is inflatable and becomes a surrogate golf club.
