Harry Kipper
| The Kipper Kids | |
|---|---|
The Kipper Kids--von Haselberg (left) and Routh (right)
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| Born |
Martin Rochus Sebastian von Haselberg Brian Routh 20 January 1949 (von Haselberg) 9 March 1948 (Routh) Buenos Aires, Argentina (von Haselberg) Gateshead, County Durham, England (Routh) |
| Occupation | Contemporary artists |
| Spouse(s) |
Bette Midler (von Haselberg) Patricia Wells (Routh) |
| Children | Sophie von Haselberg (Midler and von Haselberg) |
The Kipper Kids (Martin Rochus Sebastian von Haselberg, born 20 January 1949 and Brian Routh, born 9 March 1948) are contemporary artists who live and work in New York, US, and Leicester, UK. From 1971 the duo were also known as Harry and Harry Kipper.
Martin von Haselberg and Brian Routh are a performance duo. They met in 1970 at East 15 Acting School. After months of improvisation they invented a character they called Harry Kipper and began experimenting with different theatrical formats to use him in. Upon being expelled for being "too experimental" they took to the road, touring constantly. When The Kipper Kids, Martin von Haselberg and Brian Routh coined the name Kipper Kids, they were originally called Harry and Alf Kipper and had two distinctly different characters. Because von Haselberg and Routh could never remember who was Harry and who was Alf, they dropped the name Alf and decided to call each other Harry. At the same time they decided to make their characters identical. The Kipper Kids as Harry Kipper and Harry Kipper were born in 1971. 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. Despite having studiously avoided being part of a movement, they found themselves associated with the early years of punk in Los Angeles. Most of their performance work, however, took place in Europe.
In 1982 they stopped actively collaborating, performing as The Kipper Kids only occasionally.
Routh was married to net.art pioneer Nina Sobell from 1975-1981. From 1981–87 he was married to performance artist Karen Finley. Routh married digital artist, Patricia Wells in 2012. von Haselberg has been married to Bette Midler since 1984.
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 scatological slapstick that is all their own". Routh and von Haselberg created elaborate but purposely low-tech installations in which they would perform "ceremonies" using mostly found objects. Examples are "Tea Ceremony" (1972) a Japanese tea ceremony-inspired piece and "Boxing Ceremony" (1972) in which one performer beats himself until bloodied whilst the other acts as referee. Japanese rituals, English music hall, Viennese Actionism, and the work of Samuel Beckett were amongst their influences.
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