Linder,
Oh Grateful Colours, Bright Looks, 2009
Collage on photographic paper (photography by Tim Walker), Courtesy Blum & Poe

The recent retrospective of photographer, performance artist and counterculture British punk icon, Linder, at Blum & Poe is a rigorous if somewhat hysterically provocative critique on gender roles, specifically the commoditization of female sexuality. Spanning several decades, the imagery solidifies Linder’s role as ingénue of the “beautifully dispossessed.” The most decadently hip and disturbing imagery is probably her most well-known: a group of images that juxtapose the female body with household appliances. Not that this hasn’t been done before, i.e., Richard Hamilton’s famous collage from 1956 “Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Home so Different, So Appealing?” but Linder’s images suggest an even broader level of human decadence and in some cases here, literal violence. This is Linder’s first solo exhibition on the West Coast, a not-to-be missed show. Ends this week… go see it.

~Eve Wood