Chicks on Speed - Fremantle Arts Centre

MEDIA CONTACT
Maria Noakes
08 9432 9565
maria@fremantle.wa.gov.au
fremantle arts centre present
chicks on speed
scream + utopia album launch
An interactive
collision of art,
technology,
music, video
and fashion
Above: Chicks on Speed (Melissa Logan and Alex Murray-Leslie)
Globetrotting performance, art, music, fashion and new media provocateurs Chicks on Speed roll into FAC this April with
a typically genre-defying and mind-bending show. An immersive and interactive exhibition, SCREAM is based around a
giant sculptural structure on which Melissa Logan (USA) and Alex Murray-Leslie (Australia) project a visually and sonically
explosive collage.
In addition, the exhibition invites the viewer to use iPad Apps within the gallery which enable them to compose, mix and
project audio visual scenes against the gallery walls in real time. SCREAM also showcases the duo’s wearable ‘Objekt
Instruments’ (new interfaces for musical expression) such as a wireless high heeled ‘shoe guitar’, a theremin tapestry, made
in collaboration with the Australian Tapestry Workshop, which triggers audio samples and a haute-couture hat amplifier. It’s
colourful, noisy, sculptural, cheeky and downright fun.
This multimedia, multi-room show includes the WA premiere of Golden Gang, a 12 minute short film shot in and around
Kalgoorlie and The Pinnacles in November last year. Starring legendary Australian artist Richard Bell (currentlt exhibiting at
PICA), the film is a remix of a vignette from Luis Buñuel’s 1930 French surrealist comedy L’Age D’or (The Golden Age). MurrayLeslie and Logan were invited to remake an excerpt of the film as part of the project Der Stachel des Skorpions Ein Cadavre
exquis nach Luis Buñuels ‘L’Âge d’or’, by M&M collective and it will be exhibited at MuseumVilla Stuck, Munich in March and
Institut Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt in June.
Golden Gang showcases the bright, surrealist, poetically disjointed visual language of Chicks on Speed.
“We’ve drawn on the symbolism in Buñuel’s film inparticular his use of shifting power structures and in this case the
insatiable hunger for more gold at the cost of losing oneself,” Murray-Leslie and Logan said. “The film also references WA’s
desolate goldfields and the unimaginably painful and unbalanced Aborigional/settler relationship while also exploring
our helplessness, human mental isolation and the awesome landscapes which the viewer senses are wilderness or pilfered
land.”
MEDIA CONTACT
Maria Noakes
08 9432 9565
maria@fremantle.wa.gov.au
“We can’t wait for Chicks on Speed to unleash SCREAM at FAC,” FAC Director Jim Cathcart said. “This exhibition has
been embraced by audiences in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and now people in Perth have the chance to immerse
themselves in the irreverent, surreal world of these truly innovative artists.”
Over the past 15 years, Chicks on Speed’s founding members Logan and Murray-Leslie have worked between the worlds
of music, art and fashion, creating their own brand of GESAMTKUNSTWERK – an all embracing art form (a total work of
art). Having collaborated with luminaries as diverse as Peaches, Karl Largerfeld and Douglas Gordon, the duo are globally
renowned for their ability to cross artistic and technological boundaries in their innovative projects. They’ve exhibited
and performed at major festivals and key global institutions, including; opening the Australian Pavillion at the 55th Venice
Bienale, Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary 21, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Tate Modern, London and MoMA, New York.
In addition to SCREAM, Chicks on Speed will launch their latest studio album UTOPIA at FAC on 5 April accompanied by
electro drummer Erica Lewis. UTOPIA was created by Murray-Leslie and Logan in collaboration with leading contemporary
artists, activists and producers including Julian Assange and Yoko Ono.
ABOUT UTOPIA
Chicks on Speed are back with a new daring style of Media-Art-Pop-Music. UTOPIA, the Chicks latest studio album, is scheduled for release in
early 2014, accompanied by six interactive iPad App’s. To mark the occasion Chicks on Speed’s founding members Melissa Logan (USA) and
Alex Murray-Leslie (Australia) will perform a series of live concerts in front of Australian audiences, accompanied by electro-drummer Erica
Lewis.
The album launch performances will see the unveiling of tracks from the new album, as well as inviting audience members to participate in
the creative process on stage with the chicks, by live-composing and mixing audio-visual scenes via the Chicks on Speed Apps.
UTOPIA was created by Murray-Leslie and Logan in collaboration with leading contemporary artists, activists, producers and a princess,
including: Julian Assange, Yoko Ono, Peter Weibel, Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, Christopher Just, Oliver Horton, Angie Seah and Anat
Ben-David.
SCREAM - EXHIBITION
SAT 5 APR – SUN 25 MAY
OPENING FRI APR 4 | 6:30PM
featuring a live chicks on speed performance in fac’s main gallery
UPTOPIA - ALBUM LAUNCH
SAT 5 april 6pm | Tickets $35+BF from fac.oztix.com.au
ARTSPOKEN WITH CHICKS ON SPEED
WED 7 MAY | 7PM | FREE MAIN | GALLERY
Alex Murray-Leslie and Melissa Logan will be beamed into FAC via Skype for a discussion about their latest multimedia
extravaganza SCREAM.
About Fremantle Arts Centre
One of Australia’s leading arts centres, FAC is housed within an iconic heritage building and beautiful
grounds. Visit for free exhibitions, a shop selling the finest WA hand-made wares, an expansive live music
program, special events, an idyllic cafe and free wifi.
1 Finnerty St Fremantle | fac.org.au
7 days | 10am–5pm | +61 8 9432 9555