45
years ago today, on October 18th, 1976, The ICA (Institute of
Contemporary Arts) in London England hosted the opening night of the
infamous Prostitution exhibition by COUM Transmissions. Not only was
this the culmination of the efforts of this transgressive multimedia
arts collective, it was the official debut of their new alter-ego,
Throbbing Gristle. In addition to the performance by TG, the exhibition
included a series of framed pornographic images culled from member
Cosey Fanni Tutti’s work in the adult publishing world, sculptures
incorporating used female hygiene products and a burlesque performer.
Because
of the use of public arts funding and its presentation in a government
funded gallery, the press quickly took note of the exhibition’s
controversial contents and started spinning a media frenzy around it,
the likes of which was only surpassed just over a month later when the
Sex Pistols swore a blue streak on British tea time TV. The public
outrage over the show resulted in it being debated in the UK parliament
where Tory MP Nicholas Fairbairn famously referred to the group as
“wreckers of civilization” adding, "IT'S A SICKENING OUTRAGE! Sadistic!
Obscene! Evil! The Arts Council must be scrapped after this!" In true
meta-media form, COUM incorporated the show’s incendiary coverage into
the exhibit by creating an evolving display of all the press cuttings
published during the week the show was running.
As far as the
career of COUM Transmissions was concerned, Prostitution is often
considered the swan song of the art troupe, though a couple of minor
actions & exhibits were undertaken afterwards. But for all
practical purposes, the focus of the members shifted decisively to the
activities of the new Throbbing Gristle project after this event. In
retrospect, the ICA show was the perfect summary of COUM’s explorations
of contemporary sexuality and cultural taboos. Cosey’s work as a
professional pornographic model was central to this conception as she
was able to work from the inside of the industry, clandestinely
examining it and how sexual representation is manipulated by the media,
even as it simultaneously stands in judgment against the so-called
perversions represented by these illicit materials. The contradiction
of availability and prohibition formed an essential dynamic in terms of
how the materials were presented. The framed images, which had been
intended to be openly displayed on the wall, had to be hidden away in a
back room because of censorship so that people had to request to see
them privately and flip through the works because they were not allowed
to be shown openly in the gallery.
TG’s “debut” was, in fact,
not the group’s first public appearance. They’d done something of a
“soft launch” at a couple of brief shows in July and August of that year
where they tested their legs a bit before the official launch of the
group on October 18th. While the earlier shows offered up a somewhat
tentative version of TG, the ICA show presented them in a completely
realized form, fully prepared to confront a dazed audience who were hit
with a sound and substance which subverted the structure of a “rock
group” into a new kind of entity. They used familiar signifiers in a
way which deconstructed the essence of the music. There was no drummer,
the guitarist didn’t know how to play, nor really did anyone, though
Chris at least had some mastery of the electronics which gave TG its
signature sound. Where early COUM’s dalliances with music had been more
acoustic based and akin to “hippy” freestyle jamming, TG offered up an
electrified sound that, while bereft of any traditional musical
technique, seemed laser focused on some as-yet undetermined objective.
Genesis began the show with a desolate noise behind him while he
described the post-industrial wasteland of the modern urban world, dog
barking in the distance of a bleak landscape of alienation and anxiety.
This was the moment when “Industrial Music for Industrial People” was
born.
The aftermath of this exhibit left a lot of questions in
the minds of the public and the press and it remains one of the most
infamous and controversial shows ever put on by the ICA. Though COUM
and TG were questionable at the time, they’ve since been recognized as
creative pioneers with archives of their work officially acquired by by
the gallery in recent years. They’ve also done retrospectives of the
Prostitution show, including a 2016 40th anniversary presentation
featuring readings by Cosey Fanni Tutti.
It’s far more
difficult these days for artists to generate controversy and outrage to
the extent that was possible back then. The public and the art world
are much more jaded and familiar with attempts at transgression and
these efforts usually come off as desperate pleas for attention rather
than efforts to change the way people think or perceive their world.
COUM & TG were equipped with a serious arsenal of cultural weaponry
when they instigated these works, fortified by years of exploration and
experimentation and an intent to impact the way people perceive and
interpret the world. It wasn’t merely “shock value” self-indulgence,
like so many who came in their wake. As such, there’s still a great
deal that can be learned from their works and the artifacts to be found
in their aftermath.
