A strange meeting at Chatsworth House
Notorious iconoclast Linder Sterling tells Hannah Betts about her new show as the stately home’s first ever artist in residence
Ifind myself at Chatsworth, gazing not at its famous Gainsborough, but at a fabulous vinyl creation in which Elvis Presley’s face is juxtaposed with brilliant silver serving domes, and a dashing frog, forever awaiting a kiss from his princess. It stands overlooking Chatsworth’s spectacular Painted Hall, built to greet William of Orange, the king who never appeared, and to commemorate a meeting that never took place – like that between the late beloved Duchess of Devonshire Debo and the crown prince of pop, whom she famously adored.
“I am fascinated by the conjunction between the British aristocracy and the pop aristocracy,” says Linder Sterling, the house’s first artist in residence. “It’s a moment that – like punk – starts in 1977 when [Debo] switched on the television to become absorbed in coverage of Elvis’s death.
Two ceremonial Elvis capes are among the eclectic works going on display at the stately home, the result of a six-month residency. “People love Chatsworth, using that word unashamedly. And they all say it wouldn’t be the same if the family wasn’t here. Everyone loved Debo and they still talk about how much they loved her. They use the term ‘her Grace’, which I found so beautiful I made it the name for my show: Her Grace Land.”
This marks one of many beautiful and rather moving moments in the exhibition, which feels more like a collaboration between the artist and the house rather than her view of it. On paper, it’s an unlikely alliance: Sterling the feminist, punk photomontage artist, notorious for her multimedia interventions and occasional dildo brandishing; Chatsworth being, well, Chatsworth. In fact, it’s far more compelling a fit than last year’s confusingly ragbag fashion blockbuster, House Style, in which said house was rather lost under the weight of five centuries of frockcoats.
Sterling – more commonly known by the mononym Linder – is the first interview subject I have failed to recognise, so unconvincingly does she embody her 63 years. Kind, curious, with something of the sprite about her befitting her interest in witchcraft, she was born Linda Mulvey, before recreating herself during her years on the Manchester art scene. It was here that she began her 40-plus-year friendship with Morrissey, inspiring his song Cemetery Gates. She saw him play at the London Palladium the weekend before we meet, and tells me: “We’re experts in bearing witness for each other,” comparing his performance to Sinatra with stage invasions.
Many will know her work from her Buzzcocks’ cover for Orgasm Addict, in which an Amazonian nude with lipsticked lips for nipples sports an iron by way of a warrior’s helmet. She also donned a meat dress three decades before Lady Gaga, a gesture left unacknowledged by the pop diva. Linder remains philosophical: “Lady Gaga was aiming purely for headlines and she hit target. But, an unspoken message goes out that feminist history is one big dressing up box belonging only to the discoverer.”
During her time at Chatsworth, Linder has been more scrupulous about the past. Her approach has been to create a “sensorium”, in which sound and smell are as enticing as the visual. As she has travelled in time, so she wants her work to carry Chatsworth around the globe. “There’s always a great focus here on bringing visitors in. I wanted to focus on taking Chatsworth out into the world, making it as legible to a 16-year-old in Tokyo as an 80-year-old in Marseille. This way the residency becomes nomadic: a sensual snapshot.” Linder will also be displaying objects from Chatsworth at an exhibition called The House of
Fame, a retrospective at Nottingham Contemporary.
Back at the house, there are Debo’s Elvis capes amid a cloud of incense; a crinoline springing out of a William Kent gilt wood table in the state bedroom; photomontage-morphed women’s portraits in the Old Masters’ drawing cabinet lobby; and a lavish, female-focused sight and soundscape in the sculpture gallery. Throughout, the women in Chatsworth’s 500-year history are repositioned centre stage – be they Debo, Georgiana, the spirited 18th-century Duchess who was the subject of Amanda Foreman’s biography, or the legions who have worked to make the house what it is.
Linder is conscious that the exhibition is taking place in 2018, the anniversary of the Representation of the People Act that allowed (some) women to vote. “Time here is measured in terms of dukes. Immediately, you lose your footing. You’re in man time – and that’s quite disorientating. And then there’s the female legacy – the distaff lineage – and how that breaks and disappears at moments. And, then, I wonder whether there’s a parallel sense of female time? As ever, there’s not that continuity of narrative.”
Women have created Chatsworth’s history in the production of heirs, while also being effaced from it, obscured in its great, narrative sweep. Time has weighed heavily on them – Georgiana taking 16 tortuous years to produce an heir. In Linder, these women have found their voice.
These are interesting times for feminism, whichever generation of it one falls into. Linder was politicised during the second-wave phase of Spare Rib and Greer’s Female Eunuch and – feminist icon that she is – is constantly asked for advice. “It’s the 16-year-olds who really, really want to know how it was – almost like how it was in the war. I think they know that something perhaps has been lost: what tactics we used, what strategies.” Doubtless they also seek advice because Linder qualifies as a survivor. “My step-grandfather interfered with me while showing me pornographic images. Every time I interfere with the pornographic image, it’s a moment of triumph. I get to be Mary Shelley: I get to cut up the monster.”
“If only you could do a similar job on Weinstein,” I lament.
“Let me at him! The #Metoo movement is incredibly important. The velocity of its growth is proof that a lot of women have a lot to say.”
Meanwhile, Chatsworth will continue to make its presence felt. Its herbs appear on a flag Linder has created for Glasgow’s Women’s Library, and a film she will be making for the institution will centre on the relationship between the house’s founder, Bess of Hardwick, and Mary Queen of Scots, who was imprisoned here. Her work already feels like a permanent fixture.
“Six months at Chatsworth barely scratches the surface,” she sighs. “I love it here. I’ve completely surrendered and can say ‘I love you’, which is an odd thing, falling in love with a house. It’s never happened before, but I’ve been seduced.”
Her Grace Land is at Chatsworth from Mar 24 to Oct 21; chatsworth.org. The House of Fame is at Nottingham Contemporary from March 24 to June 24; nottinghamcontemporary.org. Both form part of The Grand Tour; thegrandtour.uk.com See the Property supplement tomorrow for an exclusive interview with the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire on Chatsworth’s 10-year, £32m restoration
‘I love it here. I have completely surrendered and can say “I love you”, which is an odd thing, falling in love with a house’