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June 18 to August 7, 2010
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Daniel Albrigo
Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is…
A LOVE STORYimages | press:
Artforum.com| Time Out Chicago | Time Out Chicago blog | Flavorpill
In Gallery 1
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Daniel Albrigo
Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is… A LOVE STORY
Western Exhibitions is pleased to present “Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is… A LOVE STORY,” a split exhibition of new works by Daniel Albrigo and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. This will be the second version of the exhibition, which was originally on view at Renwick Gallery in New York in February 2010.
“Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is… A LOVE STORY” documents the latest iteration of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge’s investigation into the malleability of self and reality and Daniel Albrigo’s response to the elder artist’s project. As part of that ongoing endeavor, P-Orridge’s has had all of h/er teeth removed and replaced with gold casts of the originals. The gesture is emblematic of Breyer P-Orridge’s efforts because it demonstrates the severity of h/er commitment to erasing the boundaries between art and life. Infatuated with Breyer P-Orridge’s gold teeth, Daniel Albrigo created a body of paintings documenting aspects of the process, and instigating the exhibition. Albrigo contributes stunningly realistic portraits of Breyer P-Orridge’s cast teeth. Closely cropped and lushly painted, the paintings engage the viewer in contemplating the gaudily ornamented orifice and dental prosthetics much as they would a conventional still life. In “Positive 4,” for instance, a rich, warm light shines down upon a cast of Breyer P-Orridge’s mouth perched on a metallic ledge. The paintings act as both ode and exposé.
Underpinning this exhibition is the collaborative effort begun in 1993 by Genesis P-Orridge and performance artist Lady Jaye Breyer that focused on a single, central concern: deconstructing the fiction of self. Frustrated by what they felt to be culturally enforced limits on identity but emboldened by the radical power of love, P-Orridge and Lady Jaye applied collage and cut-up techniques to their own bodies in an effort to merge their respective selves. Through plastic surgery, hormone therapy, cross-dressing and altered behavior, they fashioned a single, pandrogynous being, Breyer P-Orridge. The work is an experiment in identity, a test of how fully two people can integrate their lives, and, ultimately, a symbolic gesture of evolution and the alchemical union of the male and female halves of the human. Although Lady Jaye passed away in 2007, Genesis has continued Breyer P-Orridge, putting into question not only the limits between self and other but also life and death.
Breyer P-Orridge will present new assemblages, as well as photo-works, jewelry, and a neon psychick cross, the latter in collaboration with Albrigo. The sculptural assemblages combine sensuality, horror, and religion in curiosity cabinets that recall Joseph Cornell’s boxes, albeit far more grotesque that that allusion implies. Like the mixture of flesh and gold in Breyer P-Orridge’s mouth, these talismanic objects combine disparate materials: photographic references to the body, tampons, feathers, bone, fish, lapis lazuli, raw rubies, glitter and sequins. The exhibition also includes a recent artwork created by Breyer P-Orridge with Alice Genese, a respected jeweler: a substantial silver ring with a cast of the artist’s lower left molars in the place of a traditional stone. The ring is in an edition of 23, a number the mystical value of which was taught to Breyer P-Orridge by Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs.
Daniel Albrigo was born in Pomona, California in 1982 and currently lives and works in New York City. He is a respected tattoo artist and has exhibited his paintings and drawings in a two person exhibition at Redletter 1 Gallery, Tampa Fl and in group exhibitions at Riverside Museum of Art, Riverside, CA; Ghost Print Gallery, Richmond VA; Last Rites Gallery, New York; Art Basel 2008, Miami FL; La Luz De Jesus Gallery, Hollywood CA; Copro Naso Gallery, Santa Monica CA; Gallery DBA 256, Pomona CA. Albrigo also curated the exhibition “Be Here Now” at Canvas LA Gallery in Los Angeles. A catalogue of his work, Life Death Letters and Numbers, was recently published with an introductory text by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. An interview with the artist conducted by Banks Violette will appear in the next issue of the Swiss periodical Sang Bleu.
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge was born in Manchester, England in 1950. S/he was a member of the Kinetic action group Exploding Galaxy/Transmedia Exploration from 1969-1970. S/he conceived of and founded the seminal British performance art group Coum Transmissions in 1969 and was the co-founder of Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, and the spoken word/ambient music performance group Thee Majesty. Throughout Genesis’ long career, s/he has worked and collaborated with William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Derek Jarman and Dr. Timothy Leary, among others. H/er art has been exhibited internationally, including recent exhibitions at Deitch Projects, Mass MOCA, Centre Pompidou, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Barbican Museum, the Swiss Institute and White Columns, amongst others. Upcoming exhibitions will include a solo exhibition at Rupert Goldsworthy in Berlin, a keynote address at the Erotic Screens Conference, Centre for Public Culture and Ideas at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia and a lecture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in March. H/er archive was recently acquired for the permanent collection of the Tate Britain Museum. S/he is represented by Invisible-Exports in New York City.
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