COUM Transmissions
In that year, P-Orrige and Tutti exhibited at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts in a show called Prostitution, which consisted of explicit photographs of lesbians, assemblages of rusty knives, syringes, bloodied hair, used sanitary towels, press clippings, and photo documentation of COUM performances in Milan and Paris.
There was a lot of outrage expressed by London newspapers and UK politicians, including Tory MP Nicholas Fairbairn, who referred to COUM as the "wreckers of Western civilization".
P-Orridge stayed there for three months, until late October 1969, after deciding to leave, due to being angered that the commune's leaders were given more rights than the other members, and believed that the group lacked an interest in music.
P-Orridge designed a logo for the group, consisting of a semi-erect penis formed out of the word COUM with a drip of semen coming out of the end, while the motto "YOUR LOCAL DIRTY BANNED" was emblazoned underneath.
Another logo designed by Megson consisted of a hand-drawn seal accompanied by the statement "COUM guarantee disappointment"; from their early foundation, the group made use of wordplay in their artworks and adverts.
The latter combined the names of Anthony Burgess' dystopian science-fiction novel A Clockwork Orange (1962) with Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), a work of literary journalism devoted to the Merry Pranksters, a U.S. communal counter-cultural group who advocated the use of psychedelic drugs.
Named the Ho-Ho Funhouse by P-Orridge, the warehouse became the communal home to an assortment of counter-cultural figures, including artists, musicians, fashion designers and underground magazine producers.
Having earlier befriended P-Orridge at an acid test party, Newby would move into h/er room at the Funhouse, adopting the pseudonym Cosey Fanni Tutti after the title of Amadeus Mozart's 1790 opera Così fan tutte.
[12] As well as their radio and press exposure, they performed a variety of other happenings, such as Riot Control at the Gondola Club and then their first street action, Absolute Everywhere, which got them in trouble with the local police force.
"[15] They also featured in an article in Torch, the publication of the University of Hull's student union, entitled "God Sucks Mary's Hairy Nipple"; a title from a message received during a seance in Solihull attended by P'Orridge, Gasmantell and others in 1967.
[15] Tim Poston (1945–2017), subsequently a lecturer in mathematics at Warwick University went on to undertake research into catastrophe theory, influenced, it is claimed by Genesis P'Orridge, by his work in COUM.
[25] Following continual police harassment, P-Orridge and Tutti relocated to London, moving in to a squat and obtaining a basement studio in Hackney which they named the "Death Factory".
[30] At that year's Edinburgh Festival, they undertook their Marcel Duchamp-inspired Art Vandals piece at the Richard Demarco Gallery, in which they engaged guests in unconventional conversation, and spilled their food and drink on the floor.
Exhibiting alongside the Viennese Actionists, they came under increasing influence from these Austrian performance artists, adopting their emphasis on using shock tactics to combat conventional morality.
In January 1974, COUM decided to refocus their attention on music, doing so in a collaboration with the Canadian artist Clive Robertson; their co-created piece was titled Marcel Duchamp's Next Work.
It premiered on 24 January 1974 at the Fourth International Festival of Electronic Music and Mixed Media at the Zwaarte Zaal in Ghent, Belgium, and had its second performance at Brussels' Palais des Beaux-Arts.
Titled Airborn Spells, Landborn Smells, it entailed the group members pretending to be dogs and pushing along a pram containing chicken's heads and bloodied tampons; during the performance, police arrived and put a stop to the event, deeming it to be obscene.
[46] In February 1975, P-Orridge gained his only full-time job, working as an assistant editor for Colin Naylor at St. James' Press, in which he helped to compile the Contemporary Artists reference book.
[49] At Southampton's Nuffield Festival in July 1975, COUM performed Studio of Lust, where P-Orridge publicly masturbated and all of the members undressed and adopted sexual poses.
[50] "When we shifted from Coum Transmissions to TG, we were also stating that we wanted to go into popular culture, away from the art gallery context, and show that the same technique that had been made to operate in that system could work.
[52] Together, Carter, Christopherson, Cosey and P-Orridge founded a musical band, Throbbing Gristle, on 3 September 1975; they had deliberately chosen that date for it was the 36th anniversary of the United Kingdom joining the Second World War.
[55] COUM continued to operate alongside TG, and in October 1975 they performed Jusquà la balle crystal'' at the Ninth Paris Biennale at the Musée d'art modern.
[56] COUM's mail art had taken on an increasingly pornographic dimension, and in November 1975 the police charged P-Orridge with distributing obscene material via in the postal system under the 1953 Post Office Act; this trial was set for February 1976.
In the House of Commons, Scottish Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn demanded an explanation from Arts Minister Harold Lever and proclaimed P-Orridge and Tutti as "wreckers of civilisation".
The COUM Transmissions The Sound of Porridge Bubbling LP was recorded in 1971 featuring Genesis P-Orridge, Spydeee Gasmantell, Ray Harvey, Cosey Fanni Tutti and others.
