Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, whose career spanned the fields of art, music poetry and occultism, has died. Widely known for founding art and music collective COUM Transmissions, which later evolved into the influential industrial band Throbbing Gristle where they were lead vocalist, P-Orridge gained a reputation as a provocative figure, tackling controversial subjects throughout their life and career.
After dropping out of the University of Hull, P-Orridge moved to London and joined the Transmedia Explorations commune, which, though brief, is thought to have been integral to their formative years. P-Orridge would go on to found the subversive collective COUM Transmissions where together with members including Cosey Fannu Tutti, they staged happenings and performances that challenged the conventions of society. Their most notable exhibition, Prostitution, in 1976 at the ICA in London was the subject of much debate and earned them the appellation ‘wreckers of civilisation’. It was also during this show that P-Orridge and some members of COUM Transmissions debuted Throbbing Gristle. With the band, P-Orridge recorded nine studio albums and came to be known as a pioneer of industrial music. After Throbbing Gristle disbanded in 1981, P-Orridge co-founded the experimental band Psychic TV.
P-Orridge later moved to the US (a voluntary exile following a police investigation brought on by allegations of Satanic child abuse in a Channel 4 documentary) where they met their partner Jacqueline Breyer, better known as Lady Jaye. Together the pair worked on the Padrogeny Project, documenting through writings and poems a process where they underwent a series of surgical procedures in an attempt to become one person.
Throughout their career, P-Orridge made art that would come to the recognition of the artworld in later years. In 2009 Tate Britain purchased their archives and in 2013 they had a show at the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, and in 2016 at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York.
16 March 2020
