by Cosi Fanni Tutti
502 pp.
Many know Cosey from her work with the experimental art-music-performance group Throbbing Gristle (credited with the founding of ‘industrial music’, although their work by far transcended any narrow genres which may have followed), as well as its artsy and provocative precursor, COUM Transmissions. Following Throbbing Gristle’s initial demise in 1981 (the group went through several torturous attempts at a regrouping in subsequent years, which are recounted in fascinating detail in her book) she and her partner (and former TG bandmate) Chris Carter went on to produce further music under a range of guises, including the well-known Chris & Cosey and Tutti Carter.
Cosey’s contribution to the world of art and creative thought transcends music, however. She’s a visual and performance artist who has excelled at the capacity to turn her purposefully unconventional life into art expressed through a wide range of mediums, from film to photography to broader multi-media work. It’s ironic and telling that materials from her earliest controversial exhibits (for instance the ‘Prostitution’ exhibition, originally showcased in 1976, which featured photos from her sex magazine work, used tampons, and other materials) continued to garner controversy and require warning disclaimers even when reworked and exhibited in the 21st century. It’s a sign of how truly challenging her early work was that even now it still defies mainstream norms.
Cosey’s autobiography chronicles, in straightforward diary-like fashion (it frequently draws on entries from the diaries she painstakingly kept throughout her life) the development of her life and her art. Its principal drawbacks are the lack of either an index or reference notes, both of which would have been invaluable, given the complicated array of bands and artists with which Cosey and her colleagues engaged over the years. Nevertheless, the book is a deeply rewarding and insightful snapshot of the period, and of a great artist’s struggle to succeed in spite of all the challenges arrayed against them.
Cosey’s account also reveals that the emergence and success of Throbbing Gristle (as well as its precursors and re-iterations) was dependent on Cosey in more ways than one. Her artistic contributions notwithstanding, she was also the sole breadwinner for Genesis and the other artists within their circle. Without her alternating employment gigs and unemployment insurance, the artists would never have had even the very low-scale financial wherewithal to do anything more than talk about the music and art they wanted to produce. Indeed, in the early years, it was Cosey’s hard work that not only kept them fed but also provided much of the money they used for their artistic productions. As the book makes clear, without Cosey’s ability to fuse nonconventional artistic thinking with very practical decision-making and financial planning, neither COUM Transmissions nor its various subsequent groups would probably ever have gotten off the ground.
