Linder Sterling

Linder Sterling (born 1954, Liverpool) , commonly known as Linder, is a British artist known for her photography, radical feminist photomontage and confrontational performance art. She was also the former frontwoman of Manchester-based post-punk group Ludus. In 2017, Sterling was honoured with the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award. and Museum of Modern Art PS1, and Sterling's work has been included in group exhibitions at Tate Modern, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Tate Britain, and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Early life and education Linder was born in Liverpool to Jean and Thomas Mulvey. She attended Upholland Grammar School.

From 1974-1977, Linder studied Graphic Design at Manchester School of Art at Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University).

Linder has collaborated with several fashion designers including Richard Nicoll, Louise Gray, Christopher Shannon and Ashish Gupta. She went on to work on a second ballet with Tindall titled Children of the Stain, inspired by artists Ithell Colquhoun and Barbara Hepworth. She cites Dawn Adès' 1976 'Photomontage' as a major influence.

In one of her early works, possibly her best known, the cover art for the 1977 single release of "Orgasm Addict" by the punk band Buzzcocks, the collage depicts a naked woman with an iron for a head and grinning mouths instead of nipples. Linder has instructed her son to not release the identity of the woman whose picture she used for the collage until after her death. "At this point, men's magazines were either DIY, cars or porn. Women's magazines were fashion or domestic stuff. So, guess the common denominator – the female body. I took the female form from both sets of magazines and made these peculiar jigsaws highlighting these various cultural monstrosities that I felt there were at the time." Rolling Stone described Sterling's work as "subversive photomontages which splice images from consumer culture and glossy glamour magazines".

Linder has boxes of cut-outs in her studio that she works from. Kestnergesellschaft, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, among other venues. February/April 2013: Femme / Objet, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris November 2023/April 2024: Women in Revolt!, Tate Modern

Public art In 2018, Sterling was commissioned by Art on the Underground to produce a public art work at Southwark station. The Bower of Bliss, her first large-scale public art piece in London, consisted of an 85-metre long street-level photomontage billboard and a cover commission for the 29th edition of the pocket Tube map. Its launch was marked with a performance art piece in November 2018.

Performance The Bower of Bliss: An Improper Architecture, Women's Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, March 2020 The Bower of Bliss, Southwark Underground Station, London, November 2018 for Art on the Underground Destination Moon. You must not look at her!, Duke of York Steps, London, 2016 Donkey Skin, Art Night, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 2016 Children of the Mantic Stain, Leeds Art Gallery, 2015 The Ultimate Form, Salle Matisse, Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, 2013 The Darktown Cakewalk: Celebrated from the House of FAME, produced by Sorcha Dallas for the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, Glasgow, 2010 The Darktown Cakewalk: Celebrated from the House of FAME, Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2010 The Working Class Goes To Paradise, Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London, 2006 Ludus, Hacienda, Manchester, 1982

Ludus

In 1978, Linder founded the post-punk band Ludus.

Linder designed many of the group's album covers and sleeves.

The bulk of the band's material was originally released on the indie labels New Hormones and Crepuscule.

Publications Linder, published by Ridinghouse 2015 Femme/Objet, published by Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 2013, on the occasion of Linder's solo exhibition Linder: Works 1976–2006, (with essays written by Jon Savage, Philip Hoare, Lynne Tillman, Paul Bayley, Andrew Renton and Morrissey), published by JRP|Editions, 2006

Collections Sterling's work is included in the permanent collection of the Tate Modern Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, among others.

Honours and awards In 2005, Sterling received a grant from the Arts Council of England. In 2017, she received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for her creative work.

Personal life Linder has a son, Maxwell Sterling.

Linder lives and works in London. Sterling was the inspiration for The Smiths' critically acclaimed song "Cemetry Gates".