It's official: RISING is turning Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street Station Ballroom into a nine-hole mini golf course created by boundary-pushing female artists.
Nine holes are about to challenge everything you know about mini golf, as boundary-pushing artists reinvent the game.
In a bold move by RISING festival, the heritage-listed Flinders Street Ballroom will host Swingers: The Art of Mini Golf, an immersive art experience that marries competitive sport with contemporary installations. The exhibition brings together an extraordinary roster of international and local talent, each artist reimagining a hole that pushes well beyond the traditional windmills and loop-de-loops of suburban putt putt.
Swingers: The Art of Mini Golf
- Flinders Street Station Ballroom
- 4 June – 31 August 2025
- As part of RISING 2025, from June 4 – 15
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A rebellious history
The choice to spotlight female-identifying artists connects deeply with mini golf’s origins. Born from 19th-century Scottish women’s defiance against exclusion from traditional golf courses, the sport has consistently aligned itself with social progress. From becoming a rebellious attraction during America’s prohibition era to emerging as one of the earliest desegregated public spaces in 1940s USA, mini golf’s history is anything but pedestrian.
The project, developed by RISING Senior Curator Grace Herbert, pays homage to mini golf’s feminist origins while positioning it firmly in contemporary art discourse. “The history of mini golf is surprisingly subversive and sits at the heart of this project. It’s been incredible to see how each artist has taken this on. Alongside playing mini-golf and experiencing the artworks, you might have your fortune told, travel to desert country, become a human-animal hybrid, or even find yourself singing along to Dolly Parton,” said Herbert.
The artists
- Miranda July (USA): Award-winning filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist. Recent works include All Fours, Me and You and Everyone We Know, and The First Bad Man. Known for experimental performances, interactive digital projects, and unconventional storytelling.
- Kaylene Whiskey (AU): Mparntwe-born Anangu artist combining pop culture with Indigenous storytelling. Winner of 2018 Sir John Sulman Prize and 2019 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards’ General Painting Award. Known for depicting icons like Dolly Parton and Wonder Woman alongside traditional culture.
- Saeborg (JPN): Tokyo-based artist creating playful yet provocative latex creatures. Winner of 2014 Toshiko Okamoto Award and Tokyo Contemporary Art Award 2022-2024. Recent exhibitions include I WAS MADE FOR LOVING YOU and Slaughterhouse across international venues.
- Nabilah Nordin (AU): Melbourne-born, LA-based experimental sculptor. Master of Contemporary Art from Victorian College of the Arts. Creates gravity-defying forms using unconventional materials like deflated balloons and resin-coated bread.
- Delaine Le Bas (UK): British artist working across embroidery, painting, sculpture and performance. Key contributor to Paradise Lost: The First Roma Pavilion at 2007 Venice Biennale. Explores themes of nationhood, land and belonging.
- Natasha Tontey (ID): Jakarta/Yogyakarta-based artist exploring manufactured fear through fictional histories and myths. Recent solo shows include Primate Visions: Macaque Macabre at Museum MACAN and Garden Amidst the Flame at Auto Italia, London.
“RISING is about creating collective experiences and Swingers continues that tradition,” RISING Co-Artistic Directors Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek said.
“Bringing such unique artistic minds into the creation of a 9-hole course is a literal game changer.”
“I can’t wait to see audiences step up and take their shot.”
The transformation marks the third major reimagining of the Flinders Street Ballroom since its revival, following Patricia Piccinini’s landmark exhibition A Miracle Constantly Repeated in 2021. This installation offers a preview of RISING’s full winter program, set to be announced in March.
Tickets range from $26-35, with presale access available to RISING subscribers from 8am Wednesday 19 February, before general release at 12pm Friday 21 February.
Tickets are on presale for RISING subscribers from 8am Wednesday February 19 and on sale to the general public Friday February 21 at 12pm. Subscribe and buy tickets at rising.melbourne.
