WHEN : 3rd Aug – 21st September
WHERE : Institute of Modern Art
In 1997, Australian Alex Murray-Leslie and American Melissa Logan met at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts and formed Chicks on Speed. Although they would achieve fame as an electroclash band, Chicks on Speed started as a multidisciplinary art project, applying a punk-inspired DIY ethic to performance art, collage graphics, and fashion (they created their own stage costumes). Chicks on Speed have enjoyed an extraordinary career, releasing records (including hits like ‘Glamour Girl’ and ‘We Don’t Play Guitars’), doing gigs, and making exhibitions. The group has expanded and contracted, engaging all manner of collaborators. In recent years, Chicks on Speed have created ‘object instruments’, like the e-shoe (the first wireless high-heeled shoe guitar), cigar-box synthesisers, ‘super suits’ and tapestries with sensors that trigger audio/video samples, and a haute-couture hat amplifier. Scream adds a new element to this project—a set of interactive apps that enable visitors, using iPads, to compose, mix, and manipulate Chicks on Speed’s sounds and images live in the gallery. Scream was developed during residencies at ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, and Artspace, Sydney, and is supported by the Goethe Institut.
