“Cruciform” is one of many unusual ritualistic artworks in Genesis Breyer P-Orridge exhibit at the Rubin Museum (courtesy Invisible-Exports)
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Through August 1, $10-$15
212-620-5000
rubinmuseum.org
There are only three days left to see Genesis Breyer P-Orridge’s intriguing and captivating site-specific, interactive-exchange exhibition “Try to Altar Everything.” Born Neil Andrew Megson in 1950 in Manchester, England, Genesis cofounded the influential industrial bands Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV as well as the art collective COUM Transmissions. Five years ago, Marie Losier’s documentary, The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye: A Film of Transformation, detailed the love story between Genesis and Lady Jaye, both of whom went through various forms of plastic surgery to become one pandrogynous unit known as Breyer P-Orridge. (Pandrogeny stands for “positive androgeny.”) Lady Jaye passed away in 2007, and h/er death is evident throughout “Try to Altar Everything.” (The artist prefers such gender-neutral pronouns as “s/he,” “h/er,” or the plural “they” and “their.”) The exhibit explores occult ritual, faith and devotion, and the nature of objects; throughout the run of the show, visitors are encouraged to bring a small offering that will be placed in the circular containers in the walls on the sixth floor.
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge will take calls as part of “Try to Altar Everything” (photo courtesy Rubin Museum)
Genesis employs the cut-up method, popularized by Bryon Gysin and William S. Burroughs (whom she knew), to create sculptures and mixed-media collages that reference religion, from Christianity to Hindu and Tantric Buddhism. Each work is filled with strange and fascinating details that are worth investigating, including “Cruciform (Sigil Working),” in which a naked Lady Jaye adopts Christ’s pose on the cross; “Feeding the Fishes,” a shrine with fish, a mandala, and a sphere resting on a mold of gums and teeth; and “Reliquary,” a wooden box with sting ray skin, plastic eggs, a mirror, and photos. There are also illuminated standing coffins, a medicine chest, a bronze hand you’re supposed to touch, a stiletto shoe with bones and fur, and a cabinet of curiosities. And for “Listen Here,” Genesis will occasionally stop by the museum, take a seat in the regal red chair, and answer visitors’ phone calls. It’s a bold, wild, yet deeply personal exhibit that feels right at home at the Rubin. “Once you let go of all the different reasons to not do something, it leaves you with the freedom to do everything, and that was the path we chose,” Genesis says about taking risks in the Artist Extras section of the Rubin website. “Let’s go out and look for revelation, look for creation.” In addition, Genesis has curated a related Friday-night Cabaret Cinema series that continues through August 26 with Fellini Satyricon, Peter Collinson’s Up the Junction, John Schlesinger’s Billy Liar, and Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter, introduced by Simon Critchley.