Definatly worth a look. Got the new book 'Painful but Fabulous'yesterday and it is...well.. fabulous. I'm going along on the afternoon of Tue 24th. Anyone care to join me and also for a few pints of pop afterwords.
Breyer P-Orridge Art Exhibit/ London
A22 GALLERY
22 Laystall Street, London EC1R 4PA
tel: 020 7837 2101
PAINFUL BUT FABULOUS
(The Lives and Art of Genesis P-Orridge) expanded polaroids and objects 1973-2003
"Genesis has been an invaluable pioneer in developing a new language, a tremendous influence." Dr Timothy Leary
After three decades of profound, constant reinvention, Genesis P-Orridge stands as testament to an artist aggressively evolving his own path against the status quo. His immense range of work as a performance artist, musician, writer and "cultural engineer" has received both outrage and respect, distaste and admiration for its revolutionary ideas. The impression he made on the British Establishment in the late 1970s caused a media scandal and he was later forced into exile by a moralist outcry. The late Tory MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn sited the "Prostitution" show at the ICA as "a sickening outrage. Obscene. Evil. Public money is being wasted here to destroy the morality of our society. These people are wreckers of civilisation!"
The show included performance art events of COUM Transmissions, the debut of industrial music band Throbbing Gristle and Genesis P-Orridge's post-Fluxus sculptures of used tampons. This was 1976.
The complex creativity of Genesis P-Orridge's work and ideas could never be portrayed in any linear historical context. This exhibition is more a selection of artistic processes and a visual jigsaw of ideals, spanning his work from the 1970s to the present. Works include a photographic series of COUM actions, of which all the original negatives are still held by Scotland Yard, featuring performance art at the Paris and Milan Biennales; the original tampon boxes from the ICA show; recent photographic work, sculpture and a section relating to P-Orridge's current transformation in the WE ARE BUT ONE project. This is part of his ongoing explorations into the sphere of transgender.
"PANDROGENY" is a series of new work, where both Genesis P-Orridge and his wife Miss Jackie undergo plastic surgery to achieve increasing similarities in order to create and become a third being: Breyer P-Orridge. To celebrate this 21st Century project, they both had same-sized breast implants for Valentine's Day 2003. "Suddenly the immaculate conception of the p-androgeny, identity and gender re-materialisation; re-union of the hermaphrodite into a perfecting state before the fall and separation of male and female, all became clearer and unfolded with symmetry," P-Orridge explains. Suffice to say, all artworks and art actions as of 2003 are now created by the artist Breyer P-Orridge (this being Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Lady J. Breyer P-Orridge).
This is the first major exhibition covering the extraordinary work of Genesis P-Orridge, for whom life and art are inextricably bound together. As a visual artist, writer and major pioneer of both industrial music (Throbbing Gristle; Psychic TV) and multi-media collaborations, Genesis P-Orridge is truly unique within the cultural spectrum. His recently published book 'Painful But Fabulous', exploring his life's work, will also be for sale. The artist lives and works in New York.
Private View: Sunday 1st June 2003.
Exhibition: 4 June to 28 June 2003, Weds thru Fri. 12pm - 6pm. |
