Get Swinging: RISING 2025 Is Turning Melbourne's Flinders Street Station Ballroom Into an Art Exhibition That's Also a Mini-Golf Course
Filmmaker and writer Miranda July is among the female-identifying and gender-diverse artists who've designed mini-golf holes for this three-month-long pop-up.
Back in 2015, when word arrived that the Flinders Street Station Ballroom would be brought back to life after three decades of sitting dormant, no one could've imagined the wonders that it has gone on to hold. Skywhale artist Patricia Piccinini filled it with twisted flowers and otherworldly creatures. Street-art legend Rone decked it out with a new immersive artwork. For RISING 2025, now an art exhibition that's also a nine-hole mini-golf course is temporarily moving in.
When it takes over Melbourne each winter, RISING is always all about giving the Victorian capital — and Australia — brand-new experiences. As popular as putt putt is around the country, Swingers: The Art of Mini Golf is definitely a unique addition to the major annual arts festival's 2025 lineup. The event has enlisted female-identifying and gender-diverse artists to design mini-golf holes at the Flinders Street Station Ballroom, and is inviting RISING attendees — plus anyone in Melbourne for a couple of months after the festival — to get swinging at the three-month-long pop-up.
While RISING itself will run from Wednesday, June 4–Sunday, June 15 in 2025, Swingers: The Art of Mini Golf will kick off on the fest's opening day but keep letting folks get putting until Sunday, August 31. When you're tap, tap, tapping, you'll be navigating greens designed by Kajillionaire filmmaker and All Fours writer Miranda July, Australian artists Kaylene Whiskey and Nabilah Nordin, Japan's Saeborg, the United Kingdom's Delaine Le Bas, and Indonesia's Natasha Tontey.
Expect surreal, mindbending creations — whether July is riffing on her latest book's name with an 'all fores' setup, Whiskey is merging pop culture and Anangu traditions, latex creatures are a feature courtesy of Saeborg or Le Bas is working in embroidery, to name just a few of the details set to star.
Swingers: The Art of Mini Golf is RISING 2025's first program announcement — and if you're keen to find out what else is in store, the full roster arrives in March. For this certain highlight of the fest, as well as a mini golf-meets-art mashup, there'll also be a Swingers Clubhouse, aka a pop-up Archie Rose Distilling Co bar, for when you're done swinging.
As for what inspired the piece, "the history of mini golf is surprisingly subversive and sits at the heart of this project," explains RISING Senior Curator Grace Herbert, who developed Swingers: The Art of Mini Golf.
"It's been incredible to see how each artist has taken this on. Alongside playing mini golf and experiencing the artworks, you might have your fortune told, travel to desert country, become a human-animal hybrid or even find yourself singing along to Dolly Parton."
"RISING is about creating collective experiences and Swingers continues that tradition. Bringing such unique artistic minds into the creation of a nine-hole course is a literal game-changer. I can't wait to see audiences step up and take their shot," added RISING Co-Artistic Directors Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek.
RISING 2025 runs from Wednesday, June 4–Sunday, June 15 across Melbourne — and Swingers: The Art of Mini Golf will run from Wednesday, June 4–Sunday, August 31, extending past the festival. Head to the event's website for further information.
Images: Eugene Hyland.
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