Art Talk: Linder

Welcome the autumnal equinox with the artist Linder.

Linder will be joined by three Botanics experts - Catherine Conway-Payne, Greg Kenicer and Johanna Lausen-Higgins - in a discussion about her connection with the Garden and the thus far under-explored botanical themes in her work.

This unique event will be held in the Botanics' Lecture Theatre, followed by an audience Q&A and the opportunity to purchase signed books by the artist and Botanics authors.

Tickets include a complimentary tea tasting of eteaket's Rose Ritual - a bespoke blend created for Linder's exhibition at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Doors open at 6pm.

If you have any access requirements or questions relating to this event, please do not hesitate to email creativeprogrammes@rbge.org.uk

Linder: Danger Came Smiling is open daily in Inverleith House Gallery, 10.30am - 4.30pm, until 19 October.

Linder Sterling (born 1954, Liverpool), commonly known as Linder, is a British artist known for her photography, radical feminist photomontage and confrontational performance art. She was also the former frontwoman of Manchester-based post-punk group Ludus. In 2017, Sterling was honoured with the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award.

For her solo shows at the Hepworth Wakefield and Tate St Ives in 2013, Sterling collaborated with choreographer Kenneth Tindall of Northern Ballet for a performance piece, The Ultimate Form (2013), inspired by the artist's research into the work of Barbara Hepworth.

Greg Kenicer is the author of Scottish Plant Lore: An Illustrated Flora, Plant Magic and Scottish Plant Names: An A to Z, published last year. A botanist and tutor at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, he has inspired learners of all ages for 20 years. He has published numerous scientific papers on the evolution and diversity of peas and beans, but his heart also lies with the fantastic relationships between plants and people.

Johanna Lausen-Higgins is a lecturer and garden historian in Learning and Engagement at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. With a background in horticulture, history, and public engagement, her research and publications explore the history of horticulture, botanic gardens, and the iconography of a sixteenth-century grotto. She has worked across the UK and internationally, and is the horticultural consultant for Dunbar’s Close Garden, a hidden gem in central Edinburgh open year round.

Catherine Conway-Payne is the author of Herbology - Remedies from the Physic Garden, published by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 2023.

As the resident Hebologist at the Botanics, Catherine delivers an expansive range of holistic botanical studies and established the introductory short courses in Herbal Medicine for the Botanics Herbology programme. Catherine’s deep love of the natural world inspired her early development as an artist, and indeed herbalist. She studied within the School of Design at Edinburgh College of Art, and went on to study herbal medicine under the renowned herbalist Hein Zeylstra. Upon graduation, Catherine joined the National Institute of Medical Herbalists, the world’s oldest herbal organisation, and subsequently went on to co-ordinate one of the first accredited postgraduate courses in Complementary Alternative Medicine.

Cover image: Linder with Rhododendron lanigerum, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2025. Photo: Ross Fraser McLean / StudioRoRo.

Linder headshot: Linder with Rhododendron Praecox grex, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2025. Photo: Ross Fraser McLean / StudioRoRo.