Linder United Kingdom, b. 1954

Linder is a British feminist artist known for her expansive body of photomontage collages that wittingly explore the commodification and sexualisation of the female body in contemporary society. She is often compared to other contemporary feminist artists who use the photographic medium, most notably Cindy Sherman, and artists who used collage for socio-critical commentary in the early 20th Century, most notably Hannah Höch and John Heartfield.

The present work, The Goddess Who is Permanent as Well as Temporary (2020) is a lightbox by the artist showing a black-haired nude woman in the sun, with arms aloft and her face and breasts covered in blooming red flowers. It references the Greek myth of a nymph, Daphne, who escaped Apollo's persistent and unwanted wooing by taking on the disguise of a laurel tree. With the face and breasts covered in flowers, the present work dramatizes the beauty standards put toward women in contemporary society and exposes how demanding and unrealistic these are. At the same time, with the woman's face and breasts concealed, the present work bears testimony to how gender expectations may hinder women from exposing their identity and developing as a person. Linder is not unique in emphasising a feeling of entrapment as part of the female experience. Magdalena Abakanowicz's work from the collection Small Figure in Iron House (1990) also contemplates the barriers to potential self-fulfilment by physically representing a person in a cage. Other artists from the collection who have persistently explored the social norms governing male-female interaction include Sara Cwynar, whose digital photo collages expose the contradictions and absurdities embodied in female beauty cliches. 

Linder began working with photo collage in the late 1970s, once she had finished her Graphic Design education at Manchester Polytechnic and mused closely with UK punk bands, such as the Buzzcocks for whom she designed the album cover for the 1977 single Orgasm Addict. Typically working from her kitchen table, the artist would assemble thematically disparate magazines, including adult magazines, and compose images using glue and scissors. Lightboxes, such as the present work, are a more recent development for the artist, with the imagery a scanned and enlarged version of one of her typical collages. With printed media and adult magazines going digital, it only seems apt to harness the visual powers of new media. Other artists whose practice has come to strongly reflect and be responsive to technological developments of our time include Michael Craig-Martin, whose paintings and sculptures of everyday objects have changed throughout the last thirty years, with new technologies such as iPhones and laptops featured as compositional elements.

The present work has already been exhibited in the Liverpool Biennial in 2021 and at Somerset House in the exhibition The Horror Show! A Twisted Tale of Modern Britain between (October 2022 – February 2023). Lightbox artworks, similar to the present work, were also shown in a three-artist show at the Hepworth Wakefield in 2013. Reflective of a growing interest in Linder's art, there have been increasing shows featuring her work, including Women in Revolt! at Tate Britain (November 2023 - April 2024).