ARTIST PENNY SLINGER
Penny
Slinger
b. 1947, London · Chelsea College of Art, 1969 · photo-collage, film, sculpture
She has spent a lifetime bringing the inside out. A pioneer of Feminist Surrealism, she made her own body the map of the journey of the Self.
While I was living in Los Angeles, one of the best parts of my life there was the daily exposure to art and creativity. I spent so much time in galleries, exhibitions and museums, and eventually I came across the work of the British artist Penny Slinger, known for her surrealist photographic collages from the 1960s and 70s.
Back then her work touched on sexuality, celestial creativity and mysticism, subjects that were taboo, or at least novel, for the mainstream. She has described her work as a map of the journey of the Self. She is also the mind behind the Tantric Dakini Oracle deck, and, of course, she happens to live in California. I am so intrigued by the way artists take on such taboo so early, and how they learn to meet themselves through their own divine creativity. I would have loved to be a part of those surreal days.
A new language for the feminine psyche.
Penny Slinger began her career as one of the few celebrated women artists of the late 1960s in Swinging London. She graduated from Chelsea College of Art in 1969, focused her thesis on Max Ernst, and found her primary influence in Surrealism, deepened by her friendship with Roland Penrose.
Best known for her photo-collages, her work foregrounds the female body and sexuality in a radical and unapologetic way, aiming, in her own words, to bring the inside out and the outside in, and to create a new language for the feminine psyche to express itself. She began investigating the feminine subconscious using her own body, examining the relationship between sexuality, mysticism and femininity.
“A new language for the feminine psyche to express itself.”
A surreal romance in photo collage, staged in a decaying mansion.
An Exorcism is often hailed as her magnum opus, a collection of collages set against the empty mansion known to her then partner, Peter Whitehead. She has called it the deepest excavations she has done as an artist. Begun in 1969, it took roughly seven years to complete, staged within the Gothic ambiance of Lilford Hall, merging British neo-Romantic painting with the ominousness of horror cinema.
The narrative unfolds in biographical chapters, tracing a young woman’s journey toward self-actualization: from oppressive spaces dominated by phallocentric symbolism, into a reality where the protagonist finally comes into her feminine power. As Slinger asks: we have many works that follow The Hero’s Journey, but how many that track the Heroine’s?
“A blueprint for transformation. Signposts in the sand for others who wish to know themselves.”
Burned by customs, and kept from the UK for nearly fifty years.
After the original An Exorcism was published in 1977, Slinger created this extended version. It was withheld from publication in the UK after her other collage book, Mountain Ecstasy, was seized and burned by British customs for being deemed pornographic.
After nearly fifty years, this groundbreaking project can finally be revealed to audiences in the UK and beyond. What was called dangerous is now understood as a blueprint for transformation.
Sixty-four Dakinis, guardians of the deeper mysteries of the self.
Slinger is the artist behind the Tantric Dakini Oracle, a system of divination created with the Sanskrit and Tibetan scholar Nik Douglas, based on their work in the Ranipur Jharial temple of Orissa, India, which holds stone carvings of sixty-four Dakinis, ancient representations of the female principles of intuitive wisdom.
The deck’s cards are full-color collages by Slinger, a mirroring device that evokes subtle memories, sentiments, desires and fears. Meditating on the images puts the reader in contact with the energies of the Dakinis, opening a path to the inner world through two layouts: the Tree of Life, which engages the chakra centers and kundalini energies, and the Great Universe Map, which explores astrological influences upon individuals and situations.
On fashion, and surrender to the Feminine.
In 2019 Slinger created a project for Dior’s haute couture show in Paris, an experience that fed the immersive vision of her later work. In her words: “All my life I have enjoyed fashion. As someone dedicated to self-expression, how we dress and adorn ourselves is one of our prime opportunities to express who we are. So I wondered how a rendition of this would feel, made by a woman, and with role reversal.”
“The true role of the hero, in our current times, is that of service to, and surrender to, The Feminine.”
Nearly fifty years later, the whole gallery becomes the mansion.
In 2024, Richard Saltoun Gallery presented Exorcism: Inside Out, a solo exhibition spanning original photo-collage, print and video, timed to the publication of An Exorcism: A Photo Romance (Fulgur Press, 21 June 2024). Inspired by her Dior project, it was conceived as an all-immersive audio-visual environment, the entire gallery wrapped in images from the original series, alongside the UK premiere of her animated film An Exorcism, The Works.
In her own words: “My practice, at this time in my life, is focused on showing that I, as a woman in my wisdom years, have experience and distilled wisdom to offer back into the cultural melting pot. As an older woman, I seek to prove my relevancy in a climate that has marginalized us. That is why I am using myself as my own muse again, to show up and be noticed.”
“I am still here, still present, and still ardently creative and productive on all levels.”
Exhibition text courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery, Exorcism: Inside Out, 2024. Artist quotes from Flaunt Magazine and from her writings.
Antakly Projects, originally Ninu Nina, has been in conversation with the most inspiring voices in art, photography, design and culture since 2003. Words by Leila Antakly. Penny Slinger’s work asks the questions that stay with you long after you have stopped looking.
All works © Penny Slinger. The Tantric Dakini Oracle © Nik Douglas & Penny Slinger. Thank you to Penny for a lifetime of bringing the inside out.
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A map of the journey of the Self. ✦
