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A hole new world, Swingers – The Art of Mini Golf arrives at the Brisbane Powerhouse. An interactive exhibition of rebellion and play for the curious, the competitive and anyone bold enough to swing outside the lines.  

Play your way through nine adventurous mini golf holes, each designed by leading female artists, exploring the game’s subversion history and the untold obstacles along its path. 

Artist, filmmaker and writer Miranda July (All Fours) goes “All Fores” for the project. Kaylene Whiskey sets course with pop icons woven through Anangu culture. Tokyo’s Saeborg unleashes latex creatures of cartoonish menace, while Nabilah Nordin reimagines her playful, experimental sculptures with a putting twist. Delaine Le Bas squares the circle, and Natasha Tontey entwines speculative storytelling with mythology, technology, and alternative histories. Atlanta rapper BKTHERULA joins sound artist Kate Miller to make swamp flowers bloom. Australian duo Soda Jerk open an algorithmic K-hole, and prolific photographer Pat Brassington dives headfirst. 

Only the most audacious artists are here because mini golf itself was born of rebellion: invented by 19th century Scottish women who were banned from “real” courses but refused to sit on the sidelines. 

Pick your putter. It’s art that fills the cup. 

Like many good things, mini golf owes its origins to women. In this case, a group of 19th-century Scottish women banned from playing golf because swinging sticks was considered ‘unladylike’. This rebellious group of women commissioned a 9-hole putting-only course named The Himalayas, after its uneven terrain. The course still sits alongside St Andrew’s Golf Course near Edinburgh today. 

The smaller course demanded precision, and its rolling terrain added challenge, chance, and amusement. The popularity of the ‘Ladies Putting Club’ format grew rapidly, with new courses cropping up across the United Kingdom.  

By Prohibition Era DIY mini golf courses had become a craze across the USA. Thousands of courses in New York and LA were built on rooftops, in backyards and on nature strips. Many were equipped with loudspeakers and were open 24 hours a day. Eventually, late-night curfews shut them down. Years later, mini golf played a role in the civil rights movement, with a course in Washington becoming one of the first public recreational facilities to be desegregated. 

The first mini golf course in Australia was built in the 1920s and was made of sand. One of the oldest continuously running courses is Putt-Putt Mermaid Beach, which hosted the country’s first Professional Putters tournament in 1970. Lakes Entrance in Victoria is rumoured to have the highest concentration of mini golf courses of any town in the world.