Genesis Breyer P-Orridge On Her First Ever West Coast Exhibition

Tom of Finland Foundation and Lethal Amounts present iconic artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge exhibition PANDROGENY I & II. Opening tonight and running until November 24th 2019 at Tom of Finland Foundation and Lethal Amounts Gallery. This marks the first time that the legendary artist’s work has been on view on the West Coast. Below is a sneak peek from a very special interview we did of Genesis Breyer P’Orridge with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist for our next print issue. Click here for tickets to the exhibitions.

HANS ULRICH OBRIST The exhibition in Los Angeles will be called Pandrogyny 1 and 2?

P-ORRIDGE For two locations. One at Tom of Finland, in his house... they keep it as it was when he lived there. When you do an exhibition, what you put there goes amongst all his things, so that one is mainly sculptures. There was a mini retrospective in Holland this year, then it went to Berlin, and now Tom of Finland. It has things like ‘Tongue Kiss,’ which is two wolf heads, and the tongues have been replaced with knife blades. The one above is turning slowly and once every turn the two ends of the knives click. Another one is Bubblegum Machine, and it represents the womb. It has ice cubes and scorpions. It’s the myth of biological replication.

OBRIST Living scorpions?

P-ORRIDGE No unfortunately. It would be nice but no one would let me do that, but real scorpions that have been dried. So it’s things like that, they’re all created out of things that have been around me in my living space, that’s how I always work. Things that are already here that have been drawn to me in some way and then they become something.

OBRIST: What’s your relationship with L.A.?

GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE I never had one really. I would never live there. To me it has a strange atmosphere. It’s like it has a big cave underneath, with a dark energy in it that you can fall into by mistake. It doesn’t suit me at all.

Genesis BREYER P-ORRIDGE's "TOWARDS AN END TO BIOLOGICAL PERCEPTION" @ Marlborough Contemporary In New York

Genesis BREYER P-ORRIDGE is a legendary, avant-garde visionary, having spent literally a half-century interrogating the malleability of identity. This exhibition in particular is centered around he/r “shoe horn” sculptures, objects that illustrate the countless and conflicting signals towards both established mores and alternative practices. Neither the associations with propriety and control (aristocracy and bound feet), nor activities that are marginal to society (bondage) dominate. The wearer’s comfort or discomfort, the degrees of control and self-expression, all remain in the balance. What is incomprehensible and impressive is her/ his commitment to a radically simple project.

TOWARDS AN END TO BIOLOGICAL PERCEPTION will be on view at Marlborough Contemporary 545 West 25th Street through February 16. photographs by Adam Lehrer

Read Our Interview With the Legendary Genesis Breyer P'Orridge →

After Genesis Breyer P’Orridge’s legendary “Prostitution” exhibition at the ICA in London – which included pornographic collages, bloody tampons, and prostitutes, transvestites, hustlers and punks intermingling with the audiences – P’Orridge was deemed a “wrecker of civilization” by House of Commons representative Nicholas Fairbairn. Coincidentally, at the same time that a debate was stirring in the Parliament and the House about the antics of P’Orridge and their neo-Dadaist art collective COUM Transmissions, they were in Kathmandu feeding and providing shelter for lepers, beggars and refugees at their own expense. Wrecker or healer – you decide. This weekend Genesis will be having a “Pandrogaragenous Avant-yard Sale” and blessing purchased items at the Jackie Klempay Gallery in Brooklyn. Autre was lucky enough to have a chat with Genesis before the opening to discuss rebellion, the importance of the subculture and more. Read the interview here.