Chicks on Speed
| Chicks on Speed | |
|---|---|
 Chicks on Speed after a concert in Berlin in 2008 |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Electropunk , electroclash |
| founding | 1997 |
| Website | http://www.chicksonspeed.com/ |
| Founding members | |
| Melissa Logan | |
| Alex Murray-Leslie | |
| Kiki Moorse (until 2007) | |
| Current occupation | |
| Melissa Logan | |
| Alex Murray-Leslie | |
| Anat Ben-David (since 2006) | |
| Kathi Glas (since 2006) | |
Chicks on Speed is a Munich-based multinational collective for music, performance, design and visual art that has released five studio albums and numerous EPs. They also held exhibitions.
music
Chicks on Speed (CoS) began as a performance project at the Munich Academy of the Arts and soon turned to pop.
Logan and Murray-Leslie held club nights and illegal parties in Munich's Seppi Bar during their student days. During this time they met Upstart (Peter Wacha) from the Disko B music label, who helped them get started in the music industry. Disappointed by the insular, commercial art world of the academy, they turned to pop music in order to reach a larger audience with their anarchist, anti-mainstream texts and publications.
Publications
Their first release was Analog Internet (1997), followed by the single Warm Leatherette , a cover version of a Daniel Miller song (1998). In 1997 and 1998 CoS released four more singles ( Smash Metal , Euro Trash Girl (a cover version of a song by the band Cracker ), Mind Your Own Business (a Delta 5 song from 1979) and Glamor Girl ). The first two CoS albums were released in March 2000. The Un-Releases is not an official album: instead it is a collage of songs in various forms. The official Chicks on Speed debut, Chicks on Speed Will Save Us All , was released at the end of the month and contained all five singles released to date as well as Kaltes Klares Wasser , a cover version of a song by the German punk band Malaria! . Cold clear water reached number 16 on the German pop charts. The album The Re-releases of the Unreleases followed in October 2000 .
Further EPs followed, including chix 52 , a collection of cover versions of the B-52s and Fashion Rules (written to accompany a Chanel fashion show , with a record cover photographed by Karl Lagerfeld ). The album 99 cents followed with a total of three singles: We Don't Play Guitars , a collaboration with singer Peaches , a cover version of Tom Tom Club Wordy Rappinghood , with numerous guest artists, including Le Tigre .
The third album, Press the Space Bar , was released in 2004. The album was a collaboration with the Spanish band The No-Heads . There are no singles from this album, but it did contain a new version of Culture Vulture that was originally from the previous record 99 cents .
The single Art Rules (a collaboration with Scottish artist Douglas Gordon and Anat Ben-David) was released in November 2006. The single takes a critical look at the art market and its commercialization. This is described as a male-dominated sphere in which any art can be successful if the marketing is right. The refrain is:
“Brush it up, rip it down, expensive glorified wallpaper, Brush it up, rip it down, art's the rule, cash the tool! are you a nobody, well die and get famous, your own retrospective at just 33 !. "
The criticism of the system was carried out intrinsically as part of the subversive Chicks on Speed strategy. Art Rules Performances took place under the patronage of the Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary Art Foundation (tba 21), and the founder, collector Francesca von Habsburg, is an avowed fan of the band. Art Rules Performances took place in other art institutes around the world, such as B. at the Center Pompidou in Paris in February 2007, Lune in Shanghai , and the MoMA in New York .
In 2014 Chicks on Speed released their fourth album called artstravaganza .
Chicks on Speed's lyrics were often a parody of common chart styles: Glamor Girl contains elements of Europop , but the lyrics ironize both the subject and the musical style. This is also the case with the single Fashion Rules : originally conceived as a musical accompaniment for a fashion show , the text reads:
"Bless your dress, you're out of style / you're a brainwash victim for a while."
Video
Chicks on Speed have published videos of their well-known work ( Fashion Rules , Art Rules ) and documentaries of their performances on their YouTube channel .
The label Chicks On Speed Records
Chicks On Speed Records is an independent label founded in 1997 in Munich by Melissa Logan and Alex Murray-Leslie (both Chicks On Speed), Jürgen Söder and Peter Wacha . In addition to Chicks on Speed, musicians such as Le Tigre , Gustav , DAT Politics , Angie Reed , Sylvester Boy , Kevin Blechdom , Les Robespierres , Mika Vainio , Ana Da Silva (founding member of The Raincoats ), Susanne Brokesch , Planningtorock , Anat Ben David have released there , Biting pony , Kreidler .
art
The first performance by Logan and Murray-Leslie took place in 1997 at the Federal Association of Visual Artists (Munich) as part of the “Professionalism” exhibition. CoS played their freshly squeezed single "Smash Metal" (a collaboration with DMX Krew ) in a darkened room with strobe lights and a smoke machine, and yelled into the microphone for twelve minutes. This type of presentation would not correspond to the ideas of the traditional university audience and should be the first public demonstration of CoS's countercultural attitudes.
Since 2005, CoS have been increasingly developing new performance strategies , objects and installations. In 2005, gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch invited her to his gallery in Chelsea, New York. This was converted into a production facility: there were no objects for exhibition or for sale, CoS made costumes there and prepared the shooting of a film. As part of the Art Rules art opera, CoS and a large group of participating artists moved through established exhibition venues: TBA 21 in Vienna, MOMAK in Kyoto, the Center Pompidou in Paris and the MOMA New York.
Chicks retrospectives took place in 2009 in the Dundee Contemporary Arts Center and in 2011 in the Berlin art space Kreuzberg / Bethanien. In these exhibitions, in addition to the performances, specially developed objects (the Objekt Instruments) as well as textile works, installations and videos were shown.
performance
CoS uses the collective as a production facility for improvised, immediate actions, the starting point of which is located in the studio / studio, but only takes place on stage. Based on her performance practice, music, poetry and lyrics, sculptures (here also human sculptures, to be seen in the “Girl Monster” performances), paintings and video recordings are created in front of the audience. The boundaries between museum / studio / stage are softened and blurred, visitors to a textile museum become participants in a post-pop performance.
Accordingly, genres are blurred, a CoS performance is always concert, improvisation, theater and work of art at the same time. Video projection, stage display, singing, actions, scraps of improvised prose are used. In an interview, Logan points out the balancing act of this cross-genre practice: “... sometimes we slip. If the performances are too text-based, then it can quickly become too slogan-heavy, but if they work too well, then they appear theatrical, rehearsed. "
One focus of the CoS Performances is interactivity and the participation of the audience in the work, for example in 2010 at the performance The Naked Performer in the cultural area Inkonst, Malmö. CoS intend to break down barriers between artist and audience, in the tradition of Fluxus . CoS listed a number of jobs in Malmö that took place on stage and were part of the performance. These included bartenders with “liquor-cocaine” pistols, wannabe dancers, disco ball slaves, and unknown action painters (naked or not). Everyone who took the stage became part of the performance, everything that was said, performed or not performed was part of the performance.
In their practice, CoS defend themselves against the " patriarchy " of the art world. The song Art Rules asks: “Where are the women? Among the men! ”An important point of reference is the Austrian performance and media artist Valie Export , who caused a sensation with guerrilla performances such as the“ Tapp-und-Tast-Kino ”and“ Aktionhosen ”(trousers with the crotch cut out). The painter Yves Klein had used women as “extended brushes” for his anthropometries - nude models soaked in color created impressions on canvas with their bodies. Chicks on Speed decided to reinterpret this patriarchal approach , which from their point of view was shaped by sexism , in a feminist way and produced "tit prints" - chest and buttocks prints on canvas at the NH Hotel in Vitoria , Spain. These were exhibited in Berlin.
Object instrument
CoS use specially built instruments in their performances. The intention is to radicalize the ready-made by means of the self -made . Using the object instruments, self-produced samples are collaged to create the basis for a new song or a new sound, part of the performances. Object instruments include the E-shoe (an electric guitar in the shape of a shoe), the Theremin Tapestry and the Cigar Box Synth (cigar box synthesizer). The first object instrument was a pink glove with an integrated contact microphone.
The Theremin Tapestry, a tapestry with an integrated theremin, was created in 2009 in the Australian Tapestry Workshop, Craft Victoria, in Melbourne, Australia with hardware from the Theremin Institute in Moscow. The Tapestry combines craft with pop and is operated with hand movements.
Fashion
Fashion and costumes are an important part of CoS performances. In the first few years of the collective, Alex Murray-Leslie and Kiki Moorse made costumes out of leather and gaffa tape, part of the improvised do-it-yourself ethos that pervades the entire Chicks on Speed philosophy.
As part of their hybrid practice, Chicks on Speed produce fashion in collaboration with various designers. The "E-Shoe", a shoe that is also a guitar, was created together with Max Kibardian. Chicks on Speed intend to break traditional gender stereotypes with these musical instruments, the phallic guitar of the “Ax Hero” is replaced by a female garment with a fetishistic connotation.
Members
- Alex Murray-Leslie (Bowral, New South Wales, Australia)
- Kiki Moorse (Munich, Germany) from 1997 to 2007
- Melissa Logan (Upstate New York, USA)
- AL Steiner (Miami, Florida, USA)
- Kathi Glas (Munich, Germany)
- Anat Ben David (London, UK / Israel)
- Kroot Juurak (Estonia)
Exhibitions
- 2014: Chicks on Speed. Datastravaganza , Galerie 401contemporary, Berlin
- 2011: Cultural Workship Now! Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
- 2010: Don't Art Fashion Music, Dundee Contemporary Arts Center, Dundee, Scotland
- Happening, Kate Macgarry, London
- 2009: Viva La Craft! Craft Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
- Powertools for the remote controlled metaverse, BAWAG Contemporary, Vienna
- Viva La Craft, Craft Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
- A New Line, Kate Macgarry, London
- 2008: Contemporary Arts Center, Vilnius, Estonia
- 2007: Art Rules, Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyoto, Japan
- 2005: Tenticalism, Moda Fad, Barcelona, Spain
- It's not what you think, it's the way you look, Kunstraum Innsbruck
- 2004: Chicks on Speed, It's a project, Deitch Projects, New York
- Atelier CoS, Kunstverein Wolfsburg , Germany
Discography
Albums
- 2000: The Re-Releases of the Unreleases , on Chicks On Speed Records (COSR000)
- 2000: Chicks On Speed Will Save Us All! , on Chicks On Speed Records (COSR001)
- 2003: 99 cents , on Chicks On Speed Records (COSR012)
- 2004: Chicks On Speed and The No Heads: Press the Spacebar , on Chicks On Speed Records (COSR019)
- 2009: Cutting The Edge , on Chicks On Speed Records (COSR42LP) and INDIGO (92969-1)
- 2014: artstravaganza , on Chicks On Speed Records (COSR47)
EPs and singles
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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- 1998: Warm Leatherette (with DJ Hell )
- 1998: Euro Trash Girl (with mice)
- 1999: Smash Metal (with DMX Krew )
- 1999: Mind Your Own Business (with Pulsinger , Gaier / Reents )
- 1999: Glamor Girl
- 2000: Cold Clear Water ( Malaria! Vs. Chicks On Speed & Barbara Morgenstern )
- 2000: Split 7 (with V / VM)
- 2000: Chix 52
- 2001: The Chicks on Speed / Kreidler Sessions (with Kreidler )
- 2002: Fashion Rules
- 2003: We Don't Play Guitars
- 2003: Wordy Rappinghood
- 2004: Flame On (with Mika Vainio )
- 2007: ART RULES! (feat. Douglas Gordon )
- 2008: The Life (with Amanda Lepore , Mel Merio)
- 2009: Super Surfer Girl
- 2012: 10 Years Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary 21-Art Dump
Compilations
- 2006: Lemons / Chicks on Speed: play loud!
Awards
-
Dance Music Award
- 2001: in the category "Most successful national vinyl sales hit" (cold clear water)
Web links
- Official website
- Chicks on Speed at laut.de
- Chicks on Speed at Discogs (English)
- Chicks on Speed at Allmusic (English)
swell
- ↑ Gunnar Lützow, Urban Voodoo, art Magazin, September 15, 2011 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ↑ Judith Winter, Kate McGarry: In Conversation, Interview with the Chicks on Speed. In: Exhibition catalog Don't Art Fashion Music. Booth Clibbons Editions / Dundee Contemporary Arts 2010, p. 109.
- ^ Philip Ekhardt: Networks of Modernity: Explorations and Strategies. Königshausen and Neumann 2008, p. 176.
- ^ Jan Kedves: Chicks on Speed blaspheme Saatchi . In: Die Welt , January 15, 2007. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ↑ Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary: Performances ( Memento of the original from September 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . January 15, 2007. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ↑ Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary: Performances ( Memento of the original from September 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . January 15, 2007. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ↑ Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary: Performances ( Memento of the original from September 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . January 15, 2007. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ^ Morgan Short: Art Rules: Chicks on Speed in Shanghai . In: Smart Shanghai.com , April 20, 2011. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ↑ Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary: Performances ( Memento of the original from September 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . January 15, 2007. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ↑ Chicks on Speed YouTube.Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ↑ Judith Winter, Kate McGarry: In Conversation, Interview with the Chicks on Speed. In: Exhibition catalog Don't Art Fashion Music. Booth Clibbons Editions / Dundee Contemporary Arts 2010, p. 109.
- ^ The Influencers: Chicks on Speed . Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ↑ Judith Winter, Kate McGarry: In Conversation, Interview with the Chicks on Speed. In: Exhibition catalog Don't Art Fashion Music. Booth Clibbons Editions / Dundee Contemporary Arts 2010, p. 109.
- ↑ Such as B. at the exhibition Viva La Craft! Craft Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 2009.
- ↑ Judith Winter, Kate McGarry: In Conversation, Interview with the Chicks on Speed. In: Exhibition catalog Don't Art Fashion Music. Booth Clibbons Editions / Dundee Contemporary Arts 2010, p. 110.
- ↑ "THE NAKED PERFORMER" @ GIRL MONSTER, INKONST, MALMO March 28, 2010: ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ↑ Chicks on Speed: Feminism ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ↑ Press release: Chicks on Speed: Don't Art, Fashion, Music ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 184 kB). Dundee Contemporary Arts Center , April 22, 2010. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ↑ Judith Winter, Kate McGarry: In Conversation, Interview with the Chicks on Speed. In: Exhibition catalog Don't Art Fashion Music. Booth Clibbons Editions / Dundee Contemporary Arts 2010, p. 111.
- ↑ Judith Winter, Kate McGarry: In Conversation, Interview with the Chicks on Speed. In: Exhibition catalog Don't Art Fashion Music. Booth Clibbons Editions / Dundee Contemporary Arts 2010, p. 109.
- ↑ Stewart Home: Chicks on Speed, from Art to Pop and Back Again In: Exhibition catalog Don't Art Fashion Music. Booth Clibbons Editions / Dundee Contemporary Arts 2010, p. 102.
- ↑ Press release from Galerie 401contemporary on the exhibition. Retrieved November 28, 2014 .
- ↑ Chart sources: DE UK
