PCAI resident artist Linder’s major retrospective

in Hayward Gallery London

PCAI is glad to announce that resident artist Linder’s upcoming retrospective exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, from February 11 until May 5, 2025. Danger Came Smiling is Linder’s first London retrospective showcasing 50 years of the pioneering feminist artist’s work, dissecting our fascination with the body and its representation. Danger Came Smiling will present 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, Linder 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.

Linder has used photomontage throughout her career. 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.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication featuring essays from historian Marina Warner, writer and critic Chris Kraus and Roden Chief Curator Rachel Thomas. It will also include an in-conversation between Linder and Associate Curator Gilly Fox. Examining the broad spectrum of her work, these essays will delve into themes of spirituality, mysticism, surrealism, punk DIY, and transformation.This exhibition supports the Southbank Centre’s commitment as an engine of creative practice to producing new productions and exhibitions. It is curated by Hayward Gallery Roden Chief Curator, Rachel Thomas, with Associate Curator, Gilly Fox, Assistant Curator, Katie Guggenheim, and Curatorial Assistants Charlotte Dos Santos and Hannah Martin. 

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In May 2024 Linder was invited by PCAI to participate in a residency programme in Athens and Delphi curated by Kika Kyriakakou. Her research-based residency culminated with an original performance titled Cut to the Chase at the former Pikionis pavilion, now “Pi” in Delphi. The origin of “cut to the chase” as an idiom is traced to the cinematic meaning of the verb ‘cut’ and film editing back in the 1920s. Linder’s uncompromising work, whether it is photomontage, performance or video, is all about cutting, cutting out, cutting across media or received ideas. The pioneering artist partcipated in PCAI’s Sheltered Gardens group exhibition (2022-2023) at the Diomedes Botanical Garden, as well as in the PCAI Sheltered Gardens‘ programme at the National Museum of Contemporary Art EMST on February 29, 2024.

Cut to the Chase performers: Charis Dimos, Nicole Economides, Eliza Krikoni, Vassilis Noulas, Anna Papathanasiou, Kostas Tzimoulis, Spiros Varelis

Cut to the Chase film director: Natalia Papadopoulou

Cut to the Chase music: Maxwell Sterling

Cut to the Chase production: Vasia Magoula

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About Linder

Linder was born in Liverpool in 1954, and lives and works in London. A retrospective of her work, Femme/Objet, was organised in 2013 by the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, later travelling to the Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover. Her first institutional survey in the UK, Linderism, was mounted in 2020 at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, later travelling to the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne. Linder has presented recent solo exhibitions at Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Paris (2023); Blum, Los Angeles (2022); Modern Art, London (2019); Glasgow Women’s Library (2018); Nottingham Contemporary (2018); Chatsworth House, Derbyshire (2018); The Hepworth Wakefield (2013); and Tate St Ives (2013). She has participated in recent two-person and group exhibitions at dépendance, Brussels (2022); Tate Liverpool (2021); the Royal Academy, London (2020); Camden Art Centre, London (2020); the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2019); and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2019). In 2017, she was awarded the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award. Linder’s works are held in collections including the Arts Council Collection, London; the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens; the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Tate, London.

 

About the Hayward Gallery

The Hayward Gallery, part of the Southbank Centre, has a long history of presenting work by the world’s most adventurous and innovative artists including major solo shows by both emerging and established artists and dynamic group exhibitions. They include those by Bridget Riley, Bruce Nauman, Anish Kapoor, Lee Bul, Andreas Gurksy, Tracey Emin, Jeremy Deller, Kader Attia and Matthew Barney, as well as influential group exhibitions such as Africa Remix, Light Show, Psycho Buildings and Space Shifters. Opened by Queen Elizabeth II in July 1968, the gallery is one of the few remaining buildings of its style. The Brutalist building was designed by a group of young architects, including Dennis Crompton, Warren Chalk and Ron Herron and is named after Sir Isaac Hayward, a former leader of the London County Council. More.

 

Photo Credits: Nikos Vardakastanis


Activity aligned with Goals 5, 10, 16, 17