A look at Linder’s revolutionary work at the Hayward Gallery
The first London retrospective of acclaimed British artist Linder is an illuminating overview of the iconic artist’s 50 year-long career. It includes a selection of Linder’s trailblazing photomontages and explores the full range of her artistic practice, underscoring the experimental and feminist impulses of her thought-provoking work.
Danger Came Smiling presents the full trajectory of Linder’s artistic production, from the early work that grew from her involvement in the punk scene of 1970s Manchester to new works that have never been shown before. Linder’s distinct visual language is characterised by a playful irreverence which investigates the sexual commodification of the female body within magazine culture in order to examine our shifting attitudes to aspirational lifestyles, sex, food and fashion.
Linder first achieved prominence in the 1970s, within the dynamic landscape of punk and post-punk music, gaining widespread recognition with her band, Ludus, and for her groundbreaking album covers. Her photomontage for the cover of Buzzcocks’ 1977 single ‘Orgasm Addict’ endures as one of the emblematic images of the British punk scene. Five decades later, she is an internationally recognised artist renowned for her multifaceted practice.
Linder’s journey has been one of relentless exploration, venturing into realms as varied as fashion, music, performance, perfume, textiles, and film. Beyond the raw and abrasive energy of the DIY punk aesthetic, her artistic vision is informed by a rich tapestry of influences spanning religious art, surrealism, mysticism, pornography and the shifting landscape of social media.
The artist’s work is animated by her biting and sometimes outrageous sense of humour. Working with a medical grade scalpel she draws on the violent and creative power of cutting to dissect, reshape and comically deflate the commercial representation of gender norms and sexual identities. Often drawing on images of the body, Linder exposes the weighty stereotypes imposed on both ends of the gender spectrum and their evolution over time.
In her striking series of photographs, such as SheShe (1981), Linder is pictured taking on various satirical feminine personae to navigate concepts of personal invention and the performative dimensions of identity. Invoking the original essence of glamour— a powerful fusion of enchantment and magic – Linder’s work delivers a humorous and cutting feminist critique.
At the heart of her artistic practice lies a profound engagement with the poetics of protest, in which artistic inquiry intertwines seamlessly with radical thinking. Linder says: “I’m thrilled to share a lifetime’s work at the Hayward Gallery. Its Brutalist architecture is the perfect foil for the delicacy of the print ephemera I’ve worked with for over half a century. The cuts made by my blades and scissors are perpetually liberating. Each restores agency across print and page. The found images in my work are often quite fragile both materially and conceptually, it doesn’t take much then to hijack them and to take them somewhere far more surreal.”
Linder: Danger Came Smiling
Dates: From 11 February – 5 May 2025
Venue: The Hayward Gallery
