Kipper Kids (Group of artists)

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).