Light Industry: The Touching of Hands
Saturday, July 10, 2010, 19:30h
177 Livingston Street, Brooklyn, 11201 NY
Tickets - $7, available at door.
Presented by Scott Treleaven

“The title for the show comes from a remark that Gysin made to Genesis, and Genesis to me: that magical training can only be passed on by the touching of hands.” — ST

An evening of solo and collaborative projects by Scott Treleaven and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, focusing on the shared influence of artist and mystic Brion Gysin. Gysin’s close friendship with Breyer P-Orridge, and in turn her friendship with Treleaven, has over time given rise to a number of aesthetic and philosophical affinities found in the work of all three, communicated from one to the other by direct contact.

Each has explored, in his or her own way, the nature of extreme mental states, ideas of eros and thanatos, and modern applications of occult thought. Permutations of the cut-up technique, invented by Gysin in the 1950s, can be found in the reordering of visual information by both Breyer P-Orridge and Treleaven. A preoccupation with the legend of the Cult of the Assassins led to Gysin collaborator William Burroughs’s novel The Wild Boys, Breyer P-Orridge’s collective Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth and, later, Treleaven’s The Salivation Army, his VHS classic about a mid-90s movement centered around a Wild Boys/Psychick Youth-inspired zine. All demonstrate what Treleaven calls a “pre-Web concept” of “total intimacy and privacy, unmediated by uncontainable social networks.”

Tonight's program will consist of rarely-seen Temple Ov Psychick Youth ritual videos (circa 1990), a newly completed piece by Breyer P-Orridge, Weird Woman (2010), and The Salivation Army (2002), culminating with a performance by Chicago-based drone metal outfit Locrian and a screening of Last 7 Words (2009), Treleaven's affectionate and ethereal Super-8 portrait of Breyer P-Orridge.

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. She explores human behavior, ritual, and personality modification through performances that create neo-shamanic collaged paintings called “Sigils." Her most recent work documents the physical alterations s/he and her partner, the late Lady Jaye, endured within their project Pandrogeny, about re-union and re-solution of male and female to a perfecting hermaphroditic state. "Breyer P-Orridge" is the 3rd Being created by the collaborative fusion of the two artists, of which they are each an active half.

Scott Treleaven was born in Canada, in 1972. His work incorporates a variety of media, predominantly collage, film and photography, and his versatility has allowed him to collaborate with such notable artists as AA Bronson, Lady Jaye & Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Dennis Cooper, Kevin Drew (of Broken Social Scene), director Carter Smith, and G.B. Jones. Treleaven first came to attention in 1996, while still a student, with his initial foray into filmmaking, Queercore. The movie proved to be a decisive documentary of the gay punk scene in the 1990s, which he followed with the publication of his zine, This Is the Salivation Army, influenced by the writings of W.S. Burroughs, Breyer P-Orridge and the seminal Rapid Eye publications. Treleaven's work continues to focus on concepts of sexuality, psychology, mysticism and perception. He lives and works in Paris.