Kipper Kids records, 1970-2014

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Summary

Title:
Kipper Kids records
Dates:
1970-2014
Creators:
Kipper Kids (Group of artists), Routh, Brian, 1948-, and Von Haselberg, Martin, 1949-
Abstract:
Collection of audiovisual and photographic documentation of performances by the Kipper Kids, as well as related papers and props.
Extent:
16.51 Linear Feet (36 boxes) and 214 GB (7,566 files)
Language:
Collection material is in English with some German.
Preferred citation:

Kipper Kids records, 1970-2014, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2016.M.19.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/archives2016m19

Background

Scope and content:

The collection chronicles the complete career of the Kipper Kids, from their founding in the early 1970s through their breakup in 1982, as well as subsequent special performances, press coverage, and correspondence since.

Over 50 Kipper Kids' performances are documented through audiovisual and photographic materials. The collection also contains announcements and ephemera, press clippings, a small number of sketches and plans, and props.

The collection includes one audiocassette, 11 audiotape reels, two film reels, five optical discs, and 107 videocassettes, as well as one hard drive containing 7,566 files.

The collection also includes approximately 39 rolls of 35mm film and 12 rolls of 120mm film, 10 black-and-white negatives, approximately 75 contact sheets, approximately 500 black-and-white photographic prints, 16 color negatives, approximately 1,200 color slides, and approximately 70 color photographic prints.

Biographical / historical:

The performance art duo Kipper Kids was a collaborative project by Brian Routh (1948-2018, England) and Martin von Haselberg (b. 1949, Argentina) active from approximately 1971 to 1982.

Routh and von Haselberg met at East 15 Acting School in London, England, in 1970. Following their expulsion from the school for disruption, the pair went to Germany, developing the character of "Harry Kipper" near a railway station in Frankfurt. They then traveled around Germany and to Paris, France, performing together onstage as Harry and Harry Kipper, an act that would become the basis of their work as the Kipper Kids for the next decade.

The Kipper Kids' style of performance pulled from body art, conceptualism, and Viennese Actionism and integrated elements of cabaret, slapstick, and vaudeville. Their performances typically entailed variations of actions or "ceremonies," including balloon ceremonies, boxing ceremonies, food ceremonies, tea ceremonies, and wank ceremonies—all of which can be described as anti-aesthetic, with significant use of food and/or paint and repeated acts of self-abuse.

From 1971 to 1974, the Kipper Kids performed in Britain and in Europe. They went to Los Angeles, California, in 1974 on the advice of David Ross (video curator at the Long Beach Museum of Art), whom they had met following their 1973 performance at the Rudolf Zwirner Gallery in Cologne. Initially, Ross organized events for the duo, including their first stateside performance at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (LAICA).

The Kipper Kids became a fixture of the Los Angeles art scene from 1974 to 1982, performing at the Barnsdall Park Theatre, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Daisy Club, the Firehouse, LAICA, Miles Playhouse, Otis College of Art, Vanguard Gallery, and Whisky a Go-Go. Other performance venues in the United States and abroad included Acme Gallery, Galerie Krinzinger, Hallwalls, The Kitchen, and Whitechapel Art Gallery.

In addition to live performances and performances-for-camera, the Kipper Kids made multiple projects for television: K.O. Kippers (Cinemax), Mum's Magic Mulch (HBO), and a pilot for an unrealized television series.

The duo split up in 1982, though they occasionally reunited for special performances in the 1980s, 1990s, and in 2003. In the intervening years, the artists continued to bill themselves as Harry Kipper despite performing separately in New York City (Routh) and Los Angeles (von Haselberg).

Sources consulted:

Carr, C. On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 2008.

Johnson, Dominic. Unlimited Action: The Performance of Extremity in the 1970s. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019.

Phillips, Glenn, "Acquisition Approval Form for 'The Kipper Kids Archive, c. 1970-c. 1998,'" accession no. 2016.M.19, May 2, 2016.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Martin von Haselberg and Brian Routh, 2016.
Custodial history:

Materials in the archive were created or collected jointly by Martin von Haselberg and Brian Routh. Von Haselberg retained sole possession of the archive from the early 1980s until its transfer to the repository in 2016.

Processing information:

Laura Schroffel imaged the hard drive in 2016.

Sarah Lerner processed the collection and wrote the finding aid in 2024.

Transcribed titles are in quotation marks.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged in four series: Series I. Performances, projects, and exhibitions, 1972-2013, undated; Series II. Studio, portrait, and other photographs, 1970-1988, undated; Series III. Administrative files and correspondence, 1971-2014, undated; Series IV. Props, undated.

Digital materials have been filed in Series III. Administrative files and correspondence based on their content. No other changes have been made to the original arrangement, structure, or naming of the files.

Physical location:
Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Sarah Lerner
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2026-02-25 08:11:42 -0800 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers. Audiovisual and born-digital materials are unavailable until reformatted. Contact the repository for information regarding access.

Terms of access:

Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.

Preferred citation:

Kipper Kids records, 1970-2014, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2016.M.19.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/archives2016m19

Location of this collection:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US
Contact:
(310) 440-7390
Website