Trailblazing British Artist Linder Sterling Gets a Major London Retrospective
When Manchester punk pioneers Buzzcocks released their seminal (for once the word is apt) single “Orgasm Addict” in 1977, not the least of its power to shock and thrill came from the 7” sleeve design: superimposed on a yellow background with blue text, a black and white photo of the naked, oiled torso of a young woman, each of her nipples covered with a toothy, lip-sticked mouth, her head replaced by a Morphy Richards iron.
The graphic designer was Malcolm Garrett. But the artist responsible for the provocative
collage of the girl with the domestic appliance at the top of her neck was Linder Sterling (in her work she goes by Linder), then in her early twenties and embarking on what would develop into one of the most compelling careers in British art, with memorable work in multiple media: photography; video; performance; fanzines, in collaboration with the writer and Esquire contributor Jon Savage; and music, as the singer with the post-punk group Ludus.
Linder had met the members of Buzzcocks in the summer of 1976, at the now legendary Sex Pistols gig at the Free Trade Hall, when she was a student at Manchester Polytechnic and already experimenting with the photomontages for which she is still best known — often, as with the “Orgasm Addict” image, combining pictures cut out of porn magazines with others from homes and interiors magazines. Her subject, clearly, is the sexual commodification of the female body, especially in magazines and advertising, in collision with consumerism and the marketing of an aspirational “lifestyle”. What does our hunger — for food, fashion, dishwashers, watches, sex — say about us? No doubt her practice could be profitably applied to a certain men’s style magazine for the urbane sophisticate.
Linder’s tone is subversive, combining a tart, abrasive wit (you might call it cutting; she does) with a DIY aesthetic — not unlike a punk song. Her critique is feminist. Her weapons are scalpels, scissors and back issues of Playboy and House & Garden. Also, her own face and physique — she is strikingly glamorous — which she has used to confrontational effect in photos, and in real life. She once performed at the Hacienda in a dress constructed from raw meat — eat that, Lady Gaga — which she stripped off to reveal a large dildo. The results of her experiments are surreal, otherworldly and disturbing — and appealing in ways that make one question one’s own desires and predilections, and how they have been shaped by mass marketing.
From 11 February, work from Linder’s 50-year career goes on display in a major retrospective, Linder: Danger Came Smiling, at the Hayward Gallery in London. A long-overdue survey of the work of a countercultural heroine, and one of our most exciting, enduring image-makers. ○
You Might Also Like
