Nonbinary is the final work of the late artist Genesis P-Orridge (1950-2020), released posthumously in 2021. The Manchester-born musician, writer, performance artist and occultist’s artistic endeavors span decades—from the founding of the art collective COUM Transmission in the late sixties to the creation of the music group Psychic TV. Nonbinary is a memoir that not only chronicles P-Orridge’s life from birth up until the time shortly before h/er death, but also contains a last message from the artist to h/er audience—one that stresses the importance of living life fully on one’s own terms.
P-Orridge writes in a witty, rightfully boastful way of h/er life. Often bordering on the threshold of the incredible, h/er life seems at times almost guided by fate or some sort of higher power. There are passages of the book retelling events that seem almost ridiculously coincidental. For example, s/he begins the memoir by recounting h/er experience of befriending William S. Borroughs (a famous writer and artist associated with the Beat Generation Movement of the 1950s). S/he explains how s/he randomly came across his number in the paper and decided to contact him. As fictitious and exaggerated as some of these events might seem, there is no doubt that these things happened.
S/he asks how we can locate “control” in our lives in order to take it apart, understand it and free ourselves from it—all in order to live a life that is true to our own selves.
Throughout the book, P-Orridge attempts to inspire the reader to lead a life away from conformity. Drawing heavily from the ideas of Borroughs himself, who acted both as mentor and friend to P-Orridge, s/he was inspired by a question he once asked h/er: “HOW DO WE SHORT-CIRCUIT CONTROL?” (xii). S/he explains that this question came to act as a major driving force behind h/er artistry, and it is a recurring theme throughout the book. S/he asks how we can locate “control” in our lives in order to take it apart, understand it and free ourselves from it—all in order to live a life that is true to our own selves.
“I still hear his voice so clearly, and that question posed in his monotone.
How do we short-circuit control?
How do we drain the power sources of the forces that are ceaselessly trying to keep us in their grasp? Even those forces within ourselves?”
—Genesis P-Orridge, Nonbinary (xiii)
Starting at the very beginning, we are taken through P-Orridge’s formative, albeit difficult, years of growing up in Britain: constantly being moved around, suffering the consequences of a lacking school system, and experiencing a near death-experience due to asthma, which s/he cites as being the catalyst for h/er artistic journey. P-Orridge also writes about the founding of h/er first big artistic project, the performance art collective COUM Transmissions, and how it eventually turned into the industrial music-pioneering band Throbbing Gristle.
While the book tends to put P-Orridge in the position of a victim and being exploited by h/er band members as the sole carrier of the band’s vision, it is important to be aware of the multiple narratives surrounding a lot of events portrayed in the book.
Later, s/he writes about how Throbbing Gristle disbanded, which is the part of the book where Genesis starts writing about h/er fellow band members in a rather pejorative way, and they are portrayed as actively conspiring against h/er. While the book tends to put P-Orridge in the position of a victim and being exploited by h/er band members as the sole carrier of the band’s vision, it is important to be aware of the multiple narratives surrounding a lot of events portrayed in the book. P-Orridge’s former bandmate and partner Cosey Fanni Tutti accused P-Orridge of being abusive towards her and other band members. When Cosey Fanni Tutti’s autobiography Art Sex Magic came out in 2017, P-Orridge largely dismissed Tutti’s claims and failed to make any mention of them in Nonbinary. The accusations seem to have been swept under the rug somewhat by fans and media alike in favor of P-Orridge’s almost mythical character.
The latter part of the book deals with the eventual formation of the band Psychic TV together with musician Alex Fergusson. Departing from the industrial sound of Throbbing Gristle, P-Orridge writes about h/er journey towards a new type of music. P-Orridge was also a person greatly drawn to the spiritual and magical, and s/he founded the magic organization Temple ov Psychick Youth in 1981, a cult-like organization dedicated to breaking down the borders of the status quo via collective rituals. On a more personal note, it also tells the story of h/er relationship with h/er self-perceived fated partner and “twin”, Lady Jaye Breyer, whose early death caused a lot of grief in P-Orridge’s life. Lady Jaye was a person whose existence meant a lot to P-Orridge as an artist and a person, however, the chapters of the book that include h/er are significantly shorter than the ones dealing with P-Orridge’s earlier life. This came as a bit of a shock to me. Whether this was an intentional choice or not is unclear, but perhaps s/he decided to leave out much of their story precisely due to the intimacy of their bond.
Nonbinary is not only a look into P-Orridge’s remarkable life and work, but also calls the reader to action; perhaps it is a manifesto of sorts. It is a call for every person to take inspiration from h/er—to have courage and not be scared of nonconformity. To unravel the world in order to try and change it. To short-circuit control. What P-Orridge leaves us after h/er death is not only a beautifully written memoir, but a reminder that life is what we make of it and that we should live it to the fullest on our own terms. While the book undoubtedly has a positive message, it also serves as a bolster for h/er almost mythic persona, which is reflected in the way s/he writes about h/er life as a continuous spiritual journey, pushing away from control and liberating oneself from the status quo. While Genesis lived a life that may sometimes seem almost alien, s/he was still very much human—but maybe that’s what makes h/er message resound so strongly with h/er readers.
“People need to be slapped awake… but that’s not our job anymore. All of you who are reading this: you’re supposed to be changing this. You must. Because what happens in the future is a direct result of what you do and don’t do right now.” (326)
—Genesis P-Orridge, Nonbinary (326)
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (February 22, 1950–March 14, 2020) was a legendary singer-songwriter, musician, writer, occultist, cultural engineer, and visual artist. P-Orridge rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmissions art collective, which operated in Britain from 1969 to 1976. P-Orridge cofounded and fronted the pioneering industrial band Throbbing Gristle and the experimental multi-media outfit Psychic TV, paralleled by P-Orridge’s cofounding of the communal network Temple Ov Psychick Youth. In 1996, P-Orridge and partner Lady Jaye embarked on the Pandrogyne Project, a living art concept that blended physical and psychological mediums, creating the unified “Breyer P-Orridge.” In recent years, P-Orridge performed with their spoken word project Thee Majesty, which in the past included such collaborators as William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Timothy Leary, Monte Cazazza, Aaron Dilloway, Merz-bow, Tony Conrad, and countless others. P-Orridge also continued perform-ing sold-out shows all over the world with PTV3, an iteration of Psychic TV that spanned almost two decades. Over the past fifty years, P-Orridge’s art-works have been exhibited in hundreds of museums and galleries across the world, cementing P-Orridge’s prolific career of contributions to Fluxus, mail art, collage, sound poetry, and conceptual art. The archives of Genesis P-Orridge were acquired for the permanent collection of London’s Tate Britain in 2010.
Nonbinary can be purchased here.
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