Editing COUM Transmissions (section)

==The ''Prostitution'' show: 1976==

Their ''Prostitution'' show, in 1976 at the [[Institute of Contemporary Arts]] (ICA) in London, exhibited Tutti's pornographic images from magazines as well as erotic nude photographs. The show featured a stripper, used [[Always pads|Tampax]] in glass, and [[transvestism|transvestite]] guards. Prostitutes, [[Punk subculture|punk]]s, and people in costumes were among those hired to mingle with the gallery audience. The show caused debate in [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] about the public funding of such events. In the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]], [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] MP Sir [[Nicholas Fairbairn]] demanded an explanation from Arts Minister [[Harold Lever]] and proclaimed P-Orridge and Tutti as "wreckers of civilisation".<ref name="williams">{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Sheldon|chapter=Genesis P-Orridge|pages=[https://archive.org/details/contemporaryarti00nayl/page/770 770–772]|editor-last=Naylor|editor-first=Colin & Genesis P-Orridge|title=Contemporary Artists|publisher=Macmillan Press/St Martin's Press|year=1977|isbn=0-333-22672-0|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/contemporaryarti00nayl/page/770}}</ref> [[Fleet Street]] was not slow to pick up the story. The reviews were cut up, framed and put on display for the remainder of the exhibition. This was also reported in newspapers, so cut-ups about the cut-ups were also put on display. {{Citation needed|date=October 2007}}

Toward the end of COUM, performances would often consist of only P-Orridge, Cosey and Sleazy, the core group who went on to form [[Throbbing Gristle]].

COUM ended when, at a performance in Antwerp, P-Orridge had ingested leaves, bark, and whiskey and started cutting their skin with nails and became sick and had to be taken to the hospital. They decided to "stop doing performance art."<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Quietus {{!}} Features {{!}} Strange World Of... {{!}} Primal Evidence: The Strange World Of COUM Transmissions|url=https://thequietus.com/articles/21586-coum-actions-cosey-fanni-tutti-genesis-p-orridge|access-date=16 August 2020|website=The Quietus|language=en-us}}</ref>