Martin von haselberg biography examples

A Short History of Performance - 'Part I'

In a Different Light - 'Visual Culture, Sexual Identity, Queer Practice'

From the 1970s, the Kipper Kids (Harry Kipper and Harry Kipper, aka Martin Von Haselberg and the late Brian Routh) became legendary. Their dangerous, excessive and funny performance art actions were prolific in the 1970's in the UK, Europe and LA. They performed sporadically from the mid 1980's and their last public performance was in 2003. Their transgressive aesthetic influenced peers such as Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley. Routh died in August 2018.

Dominic Johnson joins Martin Von Haselberg and frequent Kipper collaborator Anne Bean to celebrate the The Kipper Kids. The event will include rare screenings, including Up Yer Bum With a Bengal Lancer (1976), and a recording of The Kipper Kids’ final performance at the National Review of Live Art, Glasgow in 2003. The event will include conversation and action.

This event will launch Johnson's new book, Unlimited Action: The Performance of Extremity in the 1970s. The book explores the limits imposed upon art and life, and the means by which artists have exposed or refused this by way of performance. It examines the 'performance of extremity' as practices at the limits of the histories of performance and art, in its most prescient decade, the 1970s. Dominic Johnson recounts and analyses game-changing performance events by six artists: Kerry Trengove, Ulay, Genesis P-Orridge and COUM Transmissions, Anne Bean, the Kipper Kids and Stephen Cripps.

Biography

Dominic Johnson is a Reader in Performance and Visual Culture at Queen Mary University of London. His authored books include The Art of Living: An Oral History of Performance Art (2015), and his edited books include Pleading in the Blood: The Art and Performances of Ron Athey (2013).

Martin von Haselberg appears weekdays on Channel 22 as commodities trader Harry Kipper. He took the name more than a decade ago when he met Brian Routh at drama school in London and launched the Kipper Kids, notorious for performance art involving foodstuffs, firecrackers and a lot of whiskey. In 1984, he took on a third identity when he married Bette Midler. Q: Where were you born and what sort of upbringing did you have? A: I was born in Buenos Aires, the youngest in a family of four boys, and was brought up in Germany and England. I left Germany when I was 12 and attended a succession of boarding schools. I had what might be referred to as a classical upbringing. I studied Greek, Latin and stuff like that--none of which I’ve retained. I was a terrible student. I never thought of myself as rebellious but my teachers always seemed to--to the extent that I was asked to leave two schools. Q: What is it about having three radically different identities that appeals to you? A: For me they somehow all merge into one another because I’ve been doing these things for a long time now. I’ve been trading commodities since before I went to drama school and did the Kipper Kids. If I was just a commodities trader, I’d probably be very frustrated creatively. If I was just a Kipper Kid, and did that as uncompromisingly as we’ve always done it, I wouldn’t earn any money. Q: Is making money as much an art form as making a painting? A: No. Q: How has money been of use to you in your life? A: It paid for my education and has allowed me to get most of the things I’ve wanted. At the same time, there’ve always been many things I’ve wanted that I can’t afford--and I hope that will always be the case. I like the game of making money almost more than what it can buy. It’s often said that money is the root of all evil, and in certain cases it can be a very disruptive thing. Q: Do you see yourself as a comical figure? A: Yes, I’m a pretty comical figure

British contemporary artists

The Kipper Kids were a duo composed of Martin Rochus Sebastian von Haselberg (born 20 January 1949) and Brian Routh (1948–2018), two artists known for the extreme and often comedic performance art they made together in the 1970s and after. Von Haselberg lives and works in New York, and Routh most recently lived in Leicester, England. From 1971, the duo were also known as Harry and Harry Kipper.

Biography

While attending East 15 Acting School, Martin von Haselberg and Brian Routh invented a character they called Harry Kipper. Upon being expelled from the school on the claim of "too experimental", they began working as a touring act. They were originally called Harry and Alf Kipper and had two distinctly different characters. Later, they dropped the name Alf and decided to call each other Harry and make their characters identical.

From 1971 to 1975, most of their performances took place in Europe. In 1974, David Ross, later director of the Whitney Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, saw them in performance at Gallerie Rudolf Zwirner in Cologne and invited them to do some shows in California. The Kipper Kids moved to Los Angeles in 1975 and became associated with the early years of punk.

In 1982, they stopped actively collaborating. Their final performance together was at the National Review of Live Art, Glasgow, in 2003. They reunited as The Kipper Kids in 2018 to perform the song "Mah Nà Mah Nà" for the album Dr. Demento: Covered in Punk.

Performance career

Quoting from an announcement for the Berkeley Art Museum: "Through actions that at times stress the visual, and the violent aspects of social rituals, the British Team of Harry and Harry Kipper perform in a fashion that combines the zany theatrics of Spike Milligan with a scatologicalslapstick that is all their own". Routh and von