Chicks on Speed: The Feminist Art-Music Collective That Electrified a Generation
Chicks on Speed began not with a record deal or a rehearsal room, but with a paintbrush and a party. In 1997, art students Alex Murray-Leslie and Melissa E. Logan crossed paths at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, bonding over a shared hunger to create work that refused to stay inside conventional boundaries. What started as an underground collective hosting illegal art parties at the self-founded Seppi Bar — a space consciously modeled on the legendary Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich — quickly evolved into something far more ambitious and enduring.
The name Chicks on Speed itself was born from necessity. After painting 25 collage works in a single night to sell at the Academy's annual sale, Murray-Leslie needed a collective name for the submission. That spontaneous decision would become the banner under which some of the most provocative feminist art-music of the next three decades would be made. Early on, the group performed a live-art piece called I Wanna Be A DJ...Baby!, standing behind DJ decks and smashing records while a sound collage tape played — a confrontational act that announced their artistic intentions loudly and clearly.
Musically, Chicks on Speed carved their own path through the electronic landscape of the late 1990s. Their earliest release was a cassette titled Analog Internet in 1997, followed by a series of boldly chosen cover versions released as singles. Their rendition of Warm Leatherette, originally by Daniel Miller as The Normal, along with covers of tracks by Cracker and post-punk group Delta 5, signaled a band as interested in musical history as in reshaping it. These singles built a loyal following before any full album even existed, demonstrating the collective's natural talent for generating cultural momentum.
Their debut album proper, Chicks on Speed Will Save Us All, arrived in March 2000 and cemented their reputation as catalysts of the emerging electroclash movement. The record gathered their celebrated singles alongside new material, including Kaltes Klares Wasser, a cover of a song by German all-women punk band Malaria! The album's success launched a wave of EPs and collaborations, most notably the Chix 52 collection of B-52's covers, hinting at both the band's irreverent humor and their deep love of pop history.
By 2003, Chicks on Speed had signed to EMI for their second album 99 Cents, which produced some of their most celebrated work. We Don't Play Guitars, a collaboration with Canadian provocateur Peaches, became a global hit and something of a feminist anthem. A cover of Tom Tom Club's Wordy Rappinghood featuring guest appearances from Le Tigre further expanded their reach, while the hidden track Flame On with electronic musician Mika Vainio showcased their experimental ambitions. Their third album, Press the Spacebar, released in 2004, pushed further into collaborative territory through a partnership with Spanish band The No-Heads and producer Cristian Vogel.
Yet to understand Chicks on Speed solely through their records is to miss much of what makes them remarkable. The collective has always operated as a multidisciplinary art group, with their practice extending into performance art, textile design, fashion, artistic research, and even the invention of their own musical instruments. Beginning in 2005, they developed what they called ObjektInstruments — handcrafted devices that blurred the line between fashion and sound technology. These included a Theremin Tapestry, cigar-box synthesizers, and the world's first wireless high-heeled shoe guitar, created in collaboration with Milan-based shoe designer Max Kibardin. Super suits with sewn-in body sensors that could trigger audio and video samples and illuminated hats inspired by the 12th-century mystic Hildegard von Bingen further demonstrated their unique ability to fuse the conceptual with the wearable.
Their major solo exhibitions brought these inventions to life in gallery spaces around the world. From the Kunstraum Kreuzberg in Berlin to ArtSpace Sydney, the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane, and the Design Hub at RMIT University in Melbourne, Chicks on Speed consistently transformed gallery spaces into living, breathing stages. A 2024 touring exhibition titled Synthesize continues this legacy, beginning at the Contemporary Art Space of Castellón and demonstrating that their drive to push boundaries shows no sign of fading.
The collective's political and philosophical foundation has always been as carefully considered as their aesthetic choices. Founding member Melissa Logan has described their worldview as fundamentally humanist, with feminism forming both a personal and political cornerstone. Rather than aligning themselves with any rigid ideology, Chicks on Speed have insisted on defining feminism on their own terms — as a lived creative practice rather than a prescribed set of beliefs. This attitude has informed everything from their record label, Chicks on Speed Records, which championed artists like Le Tigre, Planningtorock, and Ana da Silva of The Raincoats, to their Girl Monster compilation series curated by Murray-Leslie.
Their collaborations have been as wide-ranging as their ambitions. Over the years, Chicks on Speed have worked alongside Turner Prize-winning artist Douglas Gordon, performing together at the Centre Georges Pompidou and at MoMA. Their 2014 album Artstravaganza — developed during a residency at ZKM, Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe — featured contributions from figures as diverse as Yoko Ono and Julian Assange. This willingness to move fluidly between art world institutions and popular culture speaks to the collective's enduring refusal to be contained by any single scene or discipline.
Nearly three decades after those first chaotic nights at Seppi Bar, Chicks on Speed remain one of the most genuinely original collectives in contemporary culture. They have outlasted trends, transcended genre, and built a body of work that is simultaneously politically urgent and artistically inventive. With new music, ongoing exhibitions, and an ever-evolving membership that now includes Anat Ben David, Kathi Glas, Tina Frank, and Unnur Andrea Einarsdóttir alongside co-founder Murray-Leslie, the collective continues to prove that the most enduring art is that which refuses, above all else, to stand still.