Note: Linder: Danger Came Smiling is recommended for audiences aged 16 and over. The exhibition includes depictions of nudity and images of a sexual nature.
Under the section of Linder: Danger Came Smiling entitled ‘Grammar’, Linda is quoted as saying ‘I select imagery with my scalpel and I make my mark‘. In some manner, this sums up the artist Linde’s newest exhibition. Divided into the sections ‘Grammar‘, ‘Seduction‘ and ‘Cut‘, viewers are taken on a journey not just through her fifty-year career, but also through her fearless and unflinching endeavour to unpack the way that women’s (and men’s) bodies and sexualities are put through a microscope.
A case in point comes through in her 1977 work Pretty Girls, a 24 part piece that looks at a singular woman photographed in erotic poses, except that her face is masked by domestic items. It’s a jarring, almost dystopian piece hits as hard (if not harder) today as it would have done back in the late seventies. Whilst it was her criticism of how sexuality is manipulated by marketing, PR and larger market forces, as we reach a period of time today where excessive consumption is now receiving high criticism and commentary, these photos seem to hit the same level of criticism around how we choose to value what objects and people mean to us.
The use of mixed media help create a sense of how she has explored not just with her photography, but with Linde’s continual wish to utilise a variety of modern mixed media at her disposal. Colours pop in a manner your cannot ignore and certain pieces are hidden behind walls, forcing the viewer to consider if they are hiding their own voyerism in the same manner that some people hide or demonise aspects of people’s sexuality.
An arguable highlight of the exhibition is the last section ‘Cut’, where she connects her own explorations around sexuality and womanhood with myths, legends and historical representations of women and feminity. Here she continues to push the boundaries amongst a romantic haze.
In the piece Did he prefer her to us? (2023), Mia Khalifa has her photo taken in the church of St. Mary Magdalene, lit by a haze that almost seems angelic, a far cry from how many view her. Whilst in Le’ffect de la curiosité féminine (2023), she criticises the idealised Western beauty standard of bleached blonde hair via a sizeable length of blonde human hair sourced directly from China. Whilst the hair is draped romantically, it is almost grotesque in the way that the hair, imported from millions of miles away, is still held up as a limiting paragon of beauty even though there is no human attached to it.
Overall, Linder: Danger Came Smiling is an unforgiving and unrelenting exhibition that showcases not just the artist’s vast collection of work, but also brings home how the criticisms she had around portrayals of women and sexuality when she started in the 70s, still ring starkly true today.
Linder: Danger Came Smiling runs at the Hayward Gallery until the 5th of May. Find out more information and book tickets here.
This is part of our Beyond The Diaspora coverage.