| Biography: | (artist biography as of 2006)
Selected exhibitions and performances
Nuit Blanche, 2006, Parket Pagole, Paris
High Tide, 2006, Zacheta National
Gallery of Art, Warsaw and
Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius,
Lithuania
Notre Histoire, 2006, Palais de Tokyo
(performance program), Paris
O.K Video Festival, 2005, National
Gallery of Indonesia. Jakarta
Taipei Biennial: Do you Believe in
Reality?, 2004, Taipei Fine Arts
Museum, Taiwan
Gwangju Biennale: Grain of Dust, Drop
of Water, 2004, Gwangju, South Korea
I thought I knew but I was wrong:
Australian Video Art, 2004, Ssamazie
Space, Seoul and Nanyang Academy of
Fine Arts, Singapore
Australian Culture Now, 2004, Australian
Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI),
Melbourne
Primavera, 2003, Museum of
Contemporary Art, Sydney
13th Biennale of Sydney, The World
May Be (Fantastic), 2002, Art Gallery of
New South Wales (public screenings
program)
Selected publications and reviews
Philip Brophy, 'Dragging Wild Angels,
Fat Hogs & Cycle Sluts Down to Hell',
Artspace, Sydney, 2005
Tracey Clement, 'Primavera 2003',
Artlink, 24,1, p. 86
Penny Craswell, The Kingpins', Flash
Art, 37,246, Jan.-Feb, 2006
Andrew Frost, '50 of Australia's Most
Collectable Artists', Australian Art
Collector, 31, Jan.-March 2005, p. 92
Alexie Glass, 'The Kingpins: Am I Ever
Gonna See Your Face Again?',
Photofile, 74, 2005, pp. 58-61
Craig Judd, 'Gwangju Biennale 2004',
Eyeline, 56, pp. 18-20
Daniel Palmer, 'Emerging Artists',
Frieze. 96. 2006. p. 123
Dougal Phillips, The Kingpins and
Monica Tichacek', Art
& Australia, 43.1, Spring 2005, p.121
Sebastian Smee, 'Full-throttle pranksters
show they live to deride', The Australian,
26 April 2005, p. 13
| | | Source: | International 06, Liverpool Biennial exhibition catalogue | | | Date of source: | 2006 |
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| | Description: | The Kingpins play with the gaps in and
between an infinite series of
transgressive drag acts. Coming out of
Sydney's drag scene, the female
foursome utilise an aesthetics of
remixing, with elements taken from
mainstream media, pop culture and art
history, to comment on issues of
gender, sex, public space, consumerism
and corporate branding.
Their performances play with music,
video and costume, and are presented
as public interventions, sometimes in the
form of 'surprise' actions, as well as
gallery installations with posters,
projections and soundtracks. Humorous,
spectacular, grotesque and colourful,
their work engages the audience in a
subversive politics of pleasure.
Cultural jamming as a tactic against our
media-saturated social realm is evident
in the Kingpins' practice.
Pop culture increasingly assumes the
role of surrogate parent for the formation
of our identity, as the rebellious and
permissive grown-up example. The
Kingpins attempt to open up a space in
which the signifiers promoted by this
pseudo-parent can be put to a broader
semiotic examination. Their performative
interventions in urban space, using
heavily and one-sidedly coded locations
as a stage, uncover the underlying
operative logic and produce new flows of
energy and imagination on site.
Manray Hsu | | Description Source: | International 06, Liverpool Biennial exhibition catalogue | | Description Source Date: | 2006 | | Type: | group |
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