Are you listening, more or less?
Last week I had the pleasure of being in the presence of the legendary Genesis P-Orridge not once, but twice. Genesis (born Neil Andrew Megson) is known for pioneering industrial music with Throbbing Gristle, and later for performing with Psychic TV and Thee Majesty. In 1993 Genesis married Lady Jaye and they started their project to become Breyer P-Orridge, a single pandrogynous entity. Genesis Breyer P-Orridge continued this project after the death of Lady Jaye in 2007. Genesis was at the Walker Art Center with film maker Marie Losier for a screening of their movie The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye last Wednesday:
Pandrogyny is a very serious attempt by myself and Lady Jaye to push the boundaries of how people perceive humanity and the body in order to jump-start evolution. We came to the conclusion that this is a larval stage. The human body is not sacred. It doesn’t have to be male or female, that’s just an approximation that came out of primitive nature and we’ve got to a point where we can actually make decisions about how we evolve physically, mentally, spiritually and that’s what pandrogyny is all about.
The film and the Q&A afterward were interesting. I enjoy discussions surrounding different ways of being. Saturday night our local “Institute for the Advancement of Visual Culture” put together a private after party with a performance by Genesis with Thee Majesty. It was AMAZING. And so far beyond my expectations. One of the most memorable shows I’ve ever attended. Punctuated at the end of the performance by a super fan who grabbed the mic at the end to perform her own rendition of Throbbing Gristle’s Discipline. Naturally it turned out to be an old friend of mine.
