Linder's performances were transportive over the summer-now one has been purchased for the first time

"In June last year I was walking with the artist Linder Sterling in the ancient coastal woodlands just below Mount Stuart, a spectacular 19th-century Gothic house on the Scottish island of Bute. It was a sunny morning, but suddenly the atmosphere changed. A strong gust of wind shook leaves and caused boughs to creak, while gnarled trunks and twisted branches appeared to loom a little closer. The moment passed, but we both felt it."

"At the premiere in the towering, colonnaded Marble Hall of Mount Stuart, four dancers held the audience in thrall with a series of erotic, ritualised encounters in which identities slipped, power balances shifted and ancient forces seemed to stir, all guided by Linder's son Maxwell Sterling's improvised music. Shimmering sculptural costumes became protagonists, as did a large forked tree branch which shapeshifted to become antlers, a yoke, a spear and a bier."

"Linder is best known for the photomontages she has made since the 1970s, which have involved her slicing and splicing images from fashion magazines and softcore pornography, to challenge and subvert gender stereotypes, consumerism and societal norms in the process. My first Linder encounter was back in 1978 when, aged 17, I bought the band Buzzcocks's single Orgasm Addict, with its sleeve emblazoned with her infamous image of a woman with a steam iron for a head and teeth-baring smiles in place of nipples."

Linder Sterling's A kind of glamour staged immersive performances in Scottish locations that blended ritual, eroticism and sculptural costume. A sudden atmospheric gust in coastal woodlands registered as an uncanny force tied to the work's sensibility. The Mount Stuart premiere presented four dancers in ritualised encounters where identities shifted, power balances altered and ancient energies seemed to stir, accompanied by Maxwell Sterling's improvised music. Shimmering costumes and a transformative forked branch functioned as active props. The project carries forward Linder's photomontage practice of slicing fashion and pornographic imagery to subvert gender stereotypes, consumerism and social norms into live, disruptive theatre.

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