EXHIBITION
Swingers: The Art of Minigolf
2025
VENUE
Flinders Street Station
YEAR
Swingers was a playable art exhibition staged at Flinders Street Station as part of RISING Melbourne, with each of its nine mini-golf holes designed by a different female artist: Miranda July, Kaylene Whiskey, Nabilah Nordin, Saeborg, Natasha Tontey, Delaine Le Bas, BKTHERULA, Soda Jerk and Pat Brassington. The premise nodded to mini golf's own subversive history — invented in 19th-century Scotland by women barred from traditional courses, and later a fixture of Prohibition-era nightlife and one of the first desegregated public spaces in the United States.
RISING engaged Studio Peter King to translate each artist's concept into a playable installation, working closely with curator Grace Herbert across the full design and fabrication process. Players entered through the Clubhouse — a tartan-wrapped interior featuring a test putting course, whiskey bar, library and shop, with signage designed by Steph Yap Design carrying the tartan motif through the space.
Each hole was developed in dialogue with its artist. Ideas were tested through 3D virtual modelling and physical prototyping before being refined for gameplay and built with fabrication partners. Accessibility and heritage restrictions required careful consideration and design planning to achieve a successful outcome.
Client: RISING
Curator: Grace Herbert
Exhibition Design: Studio Peter King, with Steph Yap Design, Lauren Lovett and Eleanor Rienets
Exhibition Lighting Design: Studio John Fish
Exhibition Sound Design: System Sound
Fabrication: ONset Arts, Rightside Melbourne, Proxima Furniture
Signage: Decently Exposed, Classic Colour Copying
Photography: Eugene Hyland, Laura May Grogan, Rémi Chauvin, Shannyn Higgins, courtesy of RISING
“Now Flinders Street Station, with its evocatively arched windows, pleasingly peeled walls, historic domed ballroom, and not a lawn in site, is poised for a mini-golf makeover. Rising’s team of fabricators, working in collaboration with uber exhibition designer Peter King, whose past feats have included Pharaoh at the National Gallery of Victoria and Molto Bello at the Heide Museum of Modern Art, have been busily bringing artists’ visions to life.”