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Penny Slinger – Out Of The Shadows

Dir. Richard Kovitch
98 mins | 2019 | UK

SHOWING TIMES:

• Wed 21 Aug: 7.30pm

>> See additional programme notes for Penny Slinger here <<

The incredible, untold story of the British artist Penny Slinger and the traumatic events that led to the creation of her masterpiece, the 1977 photo-romance, ‘An Exorcism’.

Coming-of-age against a back drop of post-war austerity and the subsequent explosion of colour that characterised the 1960s counter- culture, Penny Slinger embraced her generation’s quest for personal freedom and sexual liberation, and channelled these desires into her ground-breaking collages, films (including collaborations with Jane Arden and Peter Whitehead) and sculptures. So powerful was her vision that 50 years later her work is still influencing contemporary artists.

‘I wanted to create art that reflected a state of mind,’ she explains. ‘To be my own muse.’  To achieve this Penny Slinger resuscitated Surrealism, instilling it with a radical, feminine perspective that led Rolling Stone to declare about her first book, 50% The Visible Woman (1971), ‘This is a major work – surely to become as ubiquitous as Sergeant Pepper in the culture.’ As the respected curator and academic Anke Kempkesobserves, ‘She could have become very, very famous.’ 

History played out differently though and by the 1980s Penny Slinger had disappeared.

‘Enthralling’ 

TIME OUT

‘Fascinating’

THE GUARDIAN

‘This standout documentary presents an especially valuable heroine for our time’

THE OC WEEKLY

‘Penny who? This is one of those irresistible documentaries that introduces an outrageous, enigmatic figure who should be world-famous outside of the art-world. So why isn’t she? An intriguing and entertaining insight into a career that has plenty to say about creativity and patriarchy’ 

TIME OUT LONDON

‘Current and needed’

LOOSE LIPS

VENUE: EXETER PHOENIX, STUDIO 74