The Hayward Gallery to present the first London retrospective of acclaimed British artist Linder.
Offering an illuminating overview of this iconic artist’s 50 year-long career, the exhibition will include a selection of Linder’s trailblazing photomontages and explore the full range of her artistic practice, underscoring the experimental and feminist impulses of her thought-provoking work.
For 50 years, Linder has been one of the great maverick artists of the British scene, transforming the poetics of punk design into works of art that provocatively redefine the female image. Linder’s iconic photomontage works invite a reevaluation of conventional narratives, intricately weaving together threads of feminism and mysticism to propose new paradigms for the future.
Rachel Thomas, Roden Chief Curator at the Hayward Gallery,
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.
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
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.
An adapted version of Linder: Danger Came Smiling will be curated by Hayward Gallery Touring and will tour nationally to Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh; Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, and more.
Linder: Danger Came Smiling, 11th February – 5th May 2025, Hayward Gallery
About the artist
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.
