If you’ve ever been made to feel like a knuckle-dragging neophyte by a documentary asserting the considerable and incontrovertible cultural significance of a pioneering subject you’ve never even heard of, don’t be put off by Penny Slinger: Out of the Shadows. This is one of those films, but there’s a good reason why the artist in question has slipped into obscurity over the past 30 years or so.

Raised at the height of postwar austerity and reaching maturity amid the counterculture explosion of the 1960s, Slinger became something of an avant garde It girl during the proceeding decade. Primarily working in collage, photography and sculpture, she created radically political, invariably provocative pieces that combined elements of erotica and surrealism, culminating in her career-defining 1977 work, ‘An Exorcism’, a psychosexual ‘photo-romance’ that evolved over the course of seven years.

Of course, this was a time when the male gaze was being challenged and received notions of femininity questioned like never before. When art, fashion and sex were becoming mainstream. Slinger was at the vanguard of this movement, so why is she not better known today? Well, while the historical airbrushing of female artists should not be overlooked, Slinger herself cites her decision to withdraw from public view (she moved to the Caribbean in the 1980s before settling in rural California, where she lived and worked as recently as 2017) as a key factor.

Director Richard Kovitch makes a strong case for Slinger being the most overlooked British artist of the 20th century. As several talking heads observe, however, it’s not the case that Slinger was simply ahead of her time, more that the singular style and progressive themes of her work are inextricably bound to a specific period. Slinger was a product of her era, and it’s only now that the female body and gender representation are at the forefront of cultural discourse again that she is finally getting the recognition she deserves.

Penny Slinger: Out of the Shadows is released 28 June. To find out where the film is screening near you head to anti-worldsreleasing.co.uk

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