The genius, madness and complicated legacy of Genesis P-Orridge

This story appears in Huck 82: The Music Issue. Order your copy now.

By her own count, Genesis P‑Orridge died three times. The first was during a severe asthma attack she suffered as a child, during which she experienced floating over her own lifeless body as doctors tried to revive her (successfully, as it turns out). The second time was in 1994, when a fire broke out at Rick Rubin’s house where she was working with the band Love and Rockets – she fell from a window trying to escape the flames, suffered a pulmonary embolism, and was clinically deceased. The third time – the time that, tragically, stuck – was after a years-long battle with leukemia in 2020, at age 70. In a way, multiple deaths does kind of make sense for someone like Genesis, who packed so many weird, wonderful, inspiring, and fucked-up lives into her one existence on Earth. But as the subject of the new documentary S/HE IS STILL HER/E, it’s as if Genesis has found yet another way to outlive us all, as her wisdom and curiosity around both life and death continues to survive.

Most people know Genesis as the founder of the bands Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, acts that have had no small part in defining the landscape of experimental rock and electronic music from the 1980s onwards. Somehow, calling her a musical genius only belies a fraction of her impact, both as a performance artist (her early work with her Throbbing Gristle bandmate and seminal artist in her own right, Cosey Fanni Tutti, is still shocking to this day) and a modern-day philosopher whose fan-cult Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) stoked conservative ire across Britain for years. 

This controversy was not without merit, however. In her 2017 memoir, Art Sex Music, Fanni Tutti raised harrowing abuse allegations against Genesis from their time together as partners and collaborators, which sent shockwaves through the UK music community. It cast a long shadow of doubt over Genesis’ legacy, and many fans are still grappling with the fact that someone so essential to the creative and spiritual awakenings of so many could, at the same time, be a deeply flawed person capable of the acts described by her past bandmate and partner (these allegations are brought up just once in S/HE IS STILL HER/E, in the form of a statement that reads that Fanni Tutti was asked to contribute to the film, and politely declined). 

In the 2000s, Genesis reached what is perhaps the pinnacle of her artistic and spiritual practices with the Pandrogyne Project, a collaboration with her late partner Lady Jaye Breyer P‑Orridge, where they both received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of plastic surgery to resemble one another. If any of this sounds reductive, that’s because it is – what makes S/HE IS STILL HER/E such a fascinating film is that while it seems impossible to condense Genesis’ body of work into an hour and 40 minutes runtime, it’s the most comprehensive look into her oeuvre that there probably ever will be. And for someone whose life, work – and yes, death(s) – were all one inextricable experience of trying to understand oneself, to be privy to even some of the answers feels like a privilege of the highest order.

We had a chat with S/HE IS STILL HER/E​’s director, David Charles Rodrigues, about his relationship with Genesis and how the film manages to capture the uncapturable.

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How did you land on Genesis as a subject? When did you first come across her as an artist? Were you a fan?

As a teen growing up in Brazil, I was into dark industrial music. I liked Genesis’s bands, especially Psychic TV, but it was only much later in my late 20s when I discovered the Pandrogyne Project – her body of work with Lady Jaye – that I was truly drawn into Gen’s entire creative universe. I’m a huge fan of artists and creators who are able to embed meaningful messages in artful, entertaining ways, and in this case it was an extreme way to express unconditional love and how through creativity and our consciousness we can transcend our bodies and journey into unconscious realms.

Which leads me to how I first met Gen. She visited me in a dream, months before I physically met her. In that dream, she put her hands on mine and said she was transferring all of her knowledge onto me so I could then share it with the world. I woke up completely stunned. I never have dreams that are so pointed or real. But I promised myself I would just see it as a cool dream and not a calling to make her the subject of my next film. However, her presence kept coming to me in different ways – I realised a close friend was close with Gen and he introduced us. Our first meeting lasted 12 hours, and by the end I told her about the dream. Gen pulled out a book she had just published of her interviews with Brion Gysin and in them there was a Gysin quote that read: ​“Wisdom can only be passed through the touching of hands.” I didn’t know much about Brion until then, and quite honestly at that moment we both knew the film was destined to be. We made a spiritual contract to make this film and transfer Gen’s knowledge to the world at large. 

Genesis was larger than life, to say the least. Were you ever intimidated by her during the making of the film? What was it like trying to capture her personality? 

My first contact with Gen was an email exchange and her response was so warm, thoughtful and inspired that any doubt or feeling of intimidation flew out the window. Of course, meeting her for the first time was also a nervous moment, but the second she opened the door to her Lower East Side apartment, we both knew we would be close friends. 

Other than Cosey, was there anyone else you would have wanted to be in the film that declined to participate or wasn’t available? How did you settle on who to include in general?

No, not really. Well, I would have loved to have interviewed Peter ​“Sleazy” Christopherson, but he’s no longer in this realm. Originally I only wanted to interview Gen and have her be the sole voice of the film. But as it evolved, and since I only had a short time filming with Gen due to her sudden death, I then decided I would only speak to people who knew all of Gen and had a deeper level of intimacy with her. I didn’t feel it was appropriate for this film to interview famous fans or people who knew Gen as an artist but not as a human being. 

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What was it like to film with Gen’s daughters? The contrast between them as adults and their childhood in TOPY seems drastically different, but they clearly had a great deal of love for Gen and respect for her art. 

It was a true gift. They carry Gen’s spark and love of life within them. They are living proof that you can lead an extraordinary – even extreme – creative life and still raise your kids to be healthy and happy. They respect Gen because Gen was a loving, caring dad through and through. For me, that is the most radical idea in this film: I believe documentary filmmaking at its best is able to bring new perspectives and role models into people’s lives and this aspect of Gen’s life, parenthood, is doing just that.

At one point in the film, someone says: ​“Genesis always said to ​‘be yourself’, but there were so many different versions of her.” Did you have the same impression of her? Which personality do you think comes through the strongest during the film?

I feel that we all exist in many forms and ways, but we often suppress them, ignore them or don’t accept they are a part of who we are. Luckily, Gen understood this from an early age and leaned into the idea of multiplicity. The reality is that Gen was all things all at once. I remember my first shoot day with her. Gen was in mysterious artist mode at first, but then Caresse, her eldest daughter, rang her and she became Gen the Dad, grilling her kid on her taxes, speaking to her grandkids. It was very revealing to me, how a person could switch personalities so seamlessly and still be the same. It’s a true superpower we all can access but rarely do. 

To say Gen was ahead of her time is an understatement. Specifically the scene where she talks about narcissistic egomaniacs willing to usher in Armageddon rather than relinquish control seems very apt to today’s world. What parts of Gen’s art do you think are the most relevant, now that she’s gone? What’s the biggest part of her legacy? 

I think the majority of Gen’s art and the messages behind them are timeless and universal, but communicated in a very extreme way. That’s what made this film possible, and why I believe she will stand the test of time. Gen was forward-thinking because Gen was a humanist at heart and as much as we evolve, our foundation, the fabric of our existence continues to be the same. I do have a soft spot for how she was able to communicate unconditional love and challenge the norms of identity through the Pandrogyne Project. In some ways, that is definitely her most profound legacy. 

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What was the most surprising thing you discovered about Gen during the making of this film? 

Gen the Dad was truly the greatest and brightest surprise of making this film. I will forever be grateful that she and her daughters opened up that side of her that few got to experience, which might be the most inspiring for people of all walks of life today. 

Touching on the film’s title, Gen made it her life’s work to question the origins of identity, including and perhaps most famously in terms of gender. As transgender people are at the forefront of so many political debates right now, what do you think the film says on the topic of gender and gender performance? 

It deeply breaks my heart to see the powerful and beautiful trans community becoming the scapegoats, the victims of politics. For me, they represent an evolution of our species and there’s so much to learn from their hardships and their joy. As from the LGBTQIA+ community at large. Despite the dark political moment we are living in right now, I do believe we are still moving forward and the world is finally understanding that there is a place for everyone and we all must be celebrated and beloved. 

As far as the film goes, I think Gen and Lady Jay’s Pandrogyne Project is more about blurring the lines between consciousness and the subconscious, and helping us understand the expansion we can have by letting ourselves transcend beyond the limits of our physical selves. 

If you would want your audience to take away one thing from watching the film, what would it be?

Be the many selves that exist in you. Love unconditionally. And short circuit the powers of control every chance you get.

Cameron Cook is a freelance journalist. Follow him on Instagram.

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