{{Short description|New Zealand artist and musician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1972}} | birth_place = Palmerston North, New Zealand | occupation = Artist and musician | alma_mater = Massey University; Victoria University of Wellington | years_active = | other_names = | spouse = | children = | awards = | website = }} '''Bek Coogan''' (born 1972) is a New Zealand multidisciplinary artist and musician.
== Background == Coogan was born in 1972 in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and has lived in Wellington.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://findnzartists.org.nz/artist/3245/bek-coogan|title=Coogan, Bek|website=Find New Zealand Artists|access-date=2019-07-01}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.circuit.org.nz/artist/bek-coogan|title=Bek Coogan|date=2015-04-24|website=CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand|language=en|access-date=2019-03-23}}</ref> She is currently based in Paekākāriki.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.undertheradar.co.nz/tour/8385/Luciano-Chessa--Oona-Verse.utr|title=Luciano Chessa + Oona Verse - Tours at Undertheradar|website=UnderTheRadarNZ|language=en|access-date=2019-03-23}}</ref> Bek is related to Steve Coogan through their fathers, who are cousins.{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}}
== Education == Coogan completed a Master's degree in Fine Arts (First-Class Honours) at Massey University in 2004,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=EBA7554E-96BF-57FE-AF15-8A4156475A6B|title=Fine Arts graduates explore our world in a new exhibition at the Bartley Nees gallery. - Massey University|publisher=Massey University |location=New Zealand|website=www.massey.ac.nz}}</ref> and a Graduate Diploma in Secondary Teaching at Victoria University of Wellington in 2012.<ref name="auto1" />
== Music == Coogan first appeared on the New Zealand music scene in 2004 as part of art-rock band Cortina. Their music was described as a fusion of "heavy metal guitar (courtesy of Ace Hurt aka Matt Hunt), odd synth noises, and bizarre lyrics (“ILLUMINATI! JENNY SHIPLEY!”)."<ref name="auto2" />
Gareth Shute described her stage persona and dress as "an insane, but stylish 80s housewife: tight jumpsuits, tinted sunglasses, and headbands. At one show at Bodega, Wellington, she squeezed a pie out of the slit in the front of her satin/lace one piece jumpsuit and began scooping out pieces to feed to the crowd. One another occasion, she was recovering from a car accident and completed a national tour wearing a neck brace with “fucked off” scrawled across it."<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.audioculture.co.nz/scenes/10-wild-ones-part-one|title=10 Wild Ones - part one|last=Shute|first=Gareth|date=2 October 2017|website=AudioCulture|language=en|access-date=2019-03-23}}</ref> Luke Rowell of Disasteradio characterised her performances as "breaking down the hierarchy between performer and audience."
In 2013, she formed the group Fantasing with Sarah Jane Parton, Claire Harris, and Gemma Syme.<ref name="auto2"/> A combination of installation art and live performance, they were the Audio Foundation's artists in residence in 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.audiofoundation.org.nz/programmes/residency/fantasing-2016|title=2016 Artist in Residence: Fantasing|website=Audio Foundation|access-date=2019-03-23}}</ref> Coogan described the group's emotional and artistic support of each other as central to their practice: "Sometimes that is kind of the art."<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Maher |first=Harriet |date=December 2016 |title=Looking Back: Contemporary Feminist Art in Australia and New Zealand |type=MA |publisher=University of Melbourne |hdl=11343/129233 }}</ref> She has also performed solo as Oona Verse and Sheville, and was a member of the band Full Fucking Moon.<ref name="auto1" /><ref name="auto2"/>
Coogan is part of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, with whom she toured various parts of the world between 2012 and 2016, including a month at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukulele.co.nz/single-post/2016/01/03/USA-Tour-Collectibles-No-3-Bek-Coogan|title=USA Tour Collectibles No. 3: Bek Coogan|website=Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra|language=en|access-date=2019-03-23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://edinburghfestival.list.co.uk/article/54129-interview-wellington-ukulele-orchestra-on-how-they-do-edinburgh/|title=Interview: Wellington Ukulele Orchestra on how they do Edinburgh|website=Edinburgh Festival List|language=en|access-date=2019-07-02}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://morristowngreen.com/2016/03/02/a-ukulele-orchestra-from-new-zealand-in-morristown-march-10/|title=A ukulele orchestra? From New Zealand? In Morristown? March 10|last=Coughlin|first=Kevin|date=2 March 2016|website=Morristown Green|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-03}}</ref> Member Andy Morley-Hall describes Coogan: "My mum calls Bek The Original Rebel. I reckon she's like a cosmic whirlwind of new and refreshing ideas. She doesn't see the world quite like the rest of us do. Though she thinks deeply about things she is the opposite of earnest."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/lifestyle-entertainment/arts/779757/Ukulele-lads-and-ladies|title=Ukulele lads and ladies|last=Hunt|first=Tom|date=12 June 2009|work=Nelson Mail|access-date=3 July 2019}}</ref>
Coogan performed the role of Janet in ''Frankensplurta'', a musical prequel to the ''Rocky Horror Picture Show'', in the March 2018 Dunedin Fringe Festival.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/give-yourself-over|title=Give yourself over|last=Munro|first=Bruce|date=12 February 2018|work=Otago Daily Times |access-date=4 July 2019}}</ref>
== Art == Coogan first exhibited her drawings in 2002, which began an ongoing practice based around a character called Sheville and referencing a mythic female utopia. Her influences range from the painter Colin McCahon to feminist, punk-inspired drawing and collage.<ref name="auto1" /> She has continued to exhibit and perform widely, including shows at Enjoy Gallery, The New Zealand Film Archive and Depot Artspace in Devonport.
Coogan was a contributor to the New Zealand women's comics anthology ''Three Words'', in which she describes her practice: "Coogan is a multidisciplinary artist who likes to test what Art is. Bek sees Performance Art, Video, Bands and Drawing as an active and politicised ideology. Art is a call to the wild or to the source, which Bek endures the shit-fight to get back to using whatever medium she can get her hands on, a vivid or a microphone drawing it up from the earth...There was, and is still now an idealistic aspect to this practice, positing an alternative female and mythic utopia. "But why the farg is it even idealist?" says Sheville, "this shit is normal where I come from."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Three words: an anthology of Aotearoa/NZ women's comics|last=Joyce|first=Rae|last2=Laing|first2=Sarah|last3=Neville|first3=Indira|publisher=Beatnik Press|year=2016|isbn=9780994120502|location=Auckland, New Zealand|pages=44}}</ref>
Coogan has also been the subject of paintings by Liz Maw.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Booker |first1=Paula J. |title=Channelling Rita |journal=Eyeline |date=2008 |volume=68 |pages=46 |url=https://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=960168399476105;res=IELHSS |language=EN}}</ref><ref name="mawnoted">{{cite news |last1=Hall |first1=David |title=Venus rising - The Listener |url=https://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2009/venus-rising/ |access-date=4 July 2019 |work=NOTED |language=en}}</ref>
== Publications ==
* Bryce Galloway, Caroline Campbell, Gavin Hipkins, David Hall, Bek Coogan, Adrian McNabb, Clem Devine, Jason Lingard, John Douglas (2002). ''Incredibly hot sex with hideous people #8 : Exquisite corpse II''. * Coogan, Bek (Summer 2006). "Sheville" ''Natural Selection'' 5 * Full Fucking Moon (2009). ''Still Life With Black Light''. Edition Künstlerhäuser Worpswede (12" EP) * Coogan, Bek, & Tilly, Torben (Spring 2009). "On The Subject Of Fate & the Destiny of Objects", ''Travelogue: Tactical Objects'' 2. * Coogan, Bek, & Up, Ari (2011). ''Typical girls: comedic feminist video from Wellington'' * Coogan, Bek (2016). "Squinting Towards Sunlight". ''Three words an anthology of Aotearoa/NZ women's comics''. Auckland, New Zealand. Beatnik Press, {{ISBN|9780994120502}} * Coogan, Bek (2017). "Savage" ''Sonic Comic'', {{ISBN|9780473390082 }} * Coogan, Bek (2017). "Rita Angus" ''Femisphere'' 1
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Further reading == * Ireland, Peter (Summer 2003). "Coogan’s Bluff" (article & artist page). ''Pulp'':66 * Ultimo, Enrique (2004). "A Little Interview with Bek Coogan". ''Foxymoron'' 4 * Dean, Anna (2004). "Vrrmmm vrrmmm". ''Staple'' 8:44 * Cross, David (Winter 2005). "That Last Moment; Recent Video Art" (review). ''Photofile'' 74:77 * Reed, Phil (2005). "Born to be wild". ''Real Groove'' 143:37 * Kaye, Stevie (Autumn 2006). "Is Wellington band Cortina the savior of rock & roll?". ''Pavement'' 71:18 * Gooding, Sarah (August 2007). "S.O.S. to the world" ''Real Groove'' 162:34–35 * Sillis, Daisy (February 2013). "Plucky ladies". ''The Australian Women's Weekly (NZ edition):''60–63
== External links == * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xhdz3jpmTA Bek Coogan featured on TVNZ arts documentary series ''The Gravy''] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71U4m-d1tCk S!p! Bull2000 – a video performance by Coogan] * [https://www.circuit.org.nz/film/civilization Civilisation – a 2004 short film by Coogan] * 2004 [https://web.archive.org/web/20050311175031/http://www.mattcouper.co.nz/cortinaint.html Cortina interview] * [https://www.radioactive.fm/recharted-49-bek-coogan-thanks-to-nz-on-air-music/ Bek Coogan interview] on RadioActiveFM ''Recharted'' 49 (June 2019)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coogan, Bek}} Category:Living people Category:1972 births Category:21st-century New Zealand artists Category:21st-century New Zealand musicians Category:Date of birth missing (living people) Category:Massey University alumni Category:New Zealand women artists Category:New Zealand women musicians Category:People from Palmerston North Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni