Folklore Karaoke or Neopaganism Sung Badly Outa Tune

Authors

  • Kirsty Kross Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37522/jeaqvd54

Keywords:

Celebration, folklore, karaoke, authenticity, Lithuania, identity, ritual, tradition, Australia, rye harvest, pre-Christian, pagan, Catholic, rugiu svente, decolonisation, roots, uprootedness, community, performance, collaboration, collective, coral trout, belief, fish, nature

Abstract

The illustrated essay, “Folklore Karaoke” is a response to the text “Will Contemporary Artists become the New Priests, Witches and Shamans?” by Joginté Bucinskaité and Jurij Dobriakov of 2019. Kirsty Kross unpacks her inability to “authentically” engage with folklore and/or traditional rituals in her practice due to her hybrid, Australian identity which isn’t grounded in any specific tradition. “Folklore Karaoke” maps her instinctive reflections, anxieties and insights culminating in her eureka realisation that her inability to be authentic opens up new possibilities for freedom and play. “Folklore Karaoke” appeared in “Ascending Numbers” a group exhibition featuring Hildur Elísa Jónsdóttir, Mattias Hellberg and Kirsty Kross- artists-in-residence at Sodas 2123 for the Festivity Residency of Spring and Summer 2024. The exhibition opened with the event, “A Night of Ascending Numbers”- a reinterpretation of Žolinė (the Virgin Mary’s ascension to heaven) and the Old Lithuanian Rye Festival — Rugių švente. Speculative rituals and practices from the past, present and future were  such as the collective building of a conceptual floral monument that was paraded into the gallery space, a striptease by a Swedish oligarch and lots of karaoke sung badly out of tune playfully created to inspire magical togetherness

Author Biography

  • Kirsty Kross

    Kirsty Kross is an eco-feminist artist based in Oslo,Norway, but originally from Meanjin/Brisbane, Australia whose practice centres on performance, but includes happenings, music, drawing, sculpture, installation. She's inspired by the trickster archetype often using alter egos or speculative, immersive interventions to discuss the anxieties and contradictions of the climate crisis and its subsequent chain of multi-crises. Kross specialises in engaging audiences and the attention economy through darkly absurd and often open ended interventions that disrupt, reconfigure and re- energise social, public and/or institutional frameworks.

    Kirsty Kross holds a Masters from The Berlin University of the Arts and a Bachelor in Art History from The University of Queensland. In Norway, Kirsty Kross has performed/exhibited at the Norwegian National Museum, Tegnertriennalen, Bergen Assembly, H.stutstillingen, KUBE, Tenthaus and PINK CUBE. In Berlin at Clockwork Gallery, Parkhaus Projects and Galerie Crystal Ball and in Stockholm at Supermarket Art Fair and the Swedish Artist’s Association.

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Published

2025-12-11

Issue

Vol. 2 (2025): Extending the Echoes: Ways with Documentation for Artists Doing Research

Section

Articles