Penny Slinger's feminist practice and exploration of feminine sexuality draw upon embodied experience, tantric philosophy, alchemy, psychology and archetypes. From her student years onward, she sought to move beyond the constraints of the male gaze, using collage to investigate and reconfigure the complexities of female subjectivity. As the artist writes in her introduction: “The images and accompanying captions present a record of the unraveling of the Self from dualistic limitations and the projections of others. It sets an example for psychic confrontation and transformation.”
In this spirit, “An Exorcism” follows a woman's journey of self-discovery through the decaying interiors of Lilford Hall in Northamptonshire, UK. Described by the artist as a “photo-roman,” the work unfolds as a sequence of symbolic passages, exploring desire, identity, and ultimately, liberation. Drawing on references ranging from religion and literature (particularly Georges Bataille) to the I Ching, Surrealism, and cinema (notably the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky and Alain Robbe-Grillet), Slinger constructs a postmodern feminist “bildungsroman” in visual form.
Across twenty-one chapters, the work interweaves primal fears, myth, ritual, eroticism and “exorcism” to confront patriarchal structures while tracing a movement toward autonomy through a series of psychological and symbolic rites of passage.