Episode 49: Cosey Fanni Tutti part 2

1972 Cosey Fanni Tutti’s art group COUM get invited to perform at the Fanfare for Europe Festival, which landmarked Great Britain joining the European Union. While constantly busy with art projects and musical shows in between she is threatened by skinheads and also manages time rescue and adopt stray animals. Nothing seems to deter Cosey from finding a sense of fulfillment and freedom through her artwork. Listen and find out more in this wild and crazy episode. 

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Transcript

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Hello, baby. Wow, it's good to see you. It has been way too long. Uh hi there. Welcome back to Jay's Rock and Roll Stories. I'm your host, Jay, as usual. Man, I haven't seen you guys in almost a month. I'm sorry. Um, just life happens, and uh life will take you here and there and everywhere. And um maybe maybe one day I'll tell you why uh what happened, but um, you know, just there it is. Anyway, so welcome back. Uh we are still talking about Cosey Fanny Tootie. This is our part two of the episode, and all of our information is coming from this amazing book called Art Sex Music by Kosi Fanny Tootie. The hard thing about this book is that, you know, as I said before, when um sometimes these artists will put out uh like an autobiography or a biography, and it's like a softball, you know, like eh, they really they pitter they walk on eggshells. No, this this one that Kosey put out is oh my god, like every other page, I'm like, I gotta write this down, I gotta, I gotta take notes on this. So it took forever to get through. Because it's just like it's jam-packed with the the life this this person had something every day. It's just it's amazing how wow. Alright, let's just jump back in. Remember, she's in that uh art artistic group collective called Coom, C-O-U-M with Genesis Piorge. And this uh let's just jump back in 1972. 1972, Coom, they receive a check because Genesis Piorge is writing a bunch of grants, getting grant money. They finally hit a good one. Well, they get a hundred pounds, and this is 1972, so that's I don't know what that would be. Uh maybe a grand or two or something today, but it was it's enough money at the time for them to buy, they buy an old postal van, and they kind of um they use it to do uh like to tour to you know to for their performance of of uh of UK and England. So um I have a lot of quotes. There that this these episodes with uh Cozy Fanny too is just gonna be full of quotes, just because like, oh my god. Like sometimes I I don't want to paraphrase because like it's just so there's it's it's it's it's it's good. Alright, so so she says, um I was also she says I was also pissed off. I mean she's she's doing a lot of art with with the with the group, right? I was also pissed off uh that the so-called radical thinkers and supporters of liberation like Genesis couldn't see that they assumed my role as a woman to be the washer, the cooker, the cleaner, in addition to everything else I did with Coombe. So yeah, so it's just kind of come on, guys, get grab a broom, like help help out. Let's let's all do it together. So on top of that, um, Genesis Peoridge is uh allergic to cats. And Kosi Fanny Tootie, I'm just gonna call her. Um okay, from now on, Kosi is Kosi and Jen, because she always refers to Genesis Peoridge as Jen. Jen is Jen. Okay. She's uh she's a um a pet lover. She always has kitties and dogs and stuff. But Genesis is allergic to cats, and um she has this cat named Mooney, and I don't know if I don't know if that was named after Keith Moon, because that was Keith Moon's nickname. But anyway, Mooney always takes shits in uh Genesis's shoes, in his boots and stuff, always takes a dump in uh Genesis Piorge's uh boots. And one day, Genesis um got so fed up with the cat like shitting in his in his in his shoes that he grabbed the cat by the scruff of the neck and threw him out the door uh which was leading to a staircase down, and the cat tumbled bump, bump, bump, bump, down the steps and just lay limp at the bottom of the of the staircase. Cosey went and rescued him and he was limp. He survived. Poor Mooney, he was okay. Uh I I I mean I when I read that I I could I could see that like it just it's so a visual thing, you know? Poor kitty. Alright, 1972. Um she starts doing uh nude modeling. Um also 1972, 1973, Coom do more uh bigger events. Um they're invited to do it was called the the Fanfare for Europe festival. So it was a cultural celebration held in the UK, and it marked the sort of all of the countries um that were involved in the European economic community. It was kind of like a big celebration of England joining the European Union. So you got uh musical uh acts, uh the kinks played, Slade played, the the Berlin Orchestra played, um there's there's sporting events, so uh there's all all kinds of different things going on, and Coom is is was invited. So Coom did this uh had this idea uh the at the they were doing their installation at the art center in it's the Farron's Art Gallery in London, and they used all they used props like they they created an office of like desks and chairs and filing cabinets, they created an office, and their installation was called the Ministry of Antisocial Insecurity, and they created this whole office where you know patrons would come in and have to fill out forms. It's it's incredible, and I I I have to read you this quote because I I just think it's fascinating. Alright, so the MAI, the Ministry of Antisocial Insecurity, was more than uh a pun on words of the Ministry of Social Security. It wasn't just about commenting on a system regarding by those who used it as far uh far from social or secure. It was fundamentally a work based on questionnaires specifically intended to provoke debate about social and cultural values and the value of art and life as art. The MAI, which we'll say the Ministry of Antis Social Insecurity, represented our opposition to defining people and art, and was an ironic, cynical statement in the form of a playful twist on the bureaucracy of government form filing, filing systems and qualification criteria that we knew so well from applying for uh sorry uh from applying for our arts council grants and our uh time signing on, signing on uh welfare, right? Uh joining the welfare. The various forms which had officially stamped each of our workless days and defined us as unemployed, thereby qualifying us to receive benefit money. We sorry were reworked into mock questionnaires and application forms for artistic subsidy, artistic classification, concluding with, for example, um their form, the MA MAIPS4, the non-payment slip, claimants were given to sign as a receipt for quote nothing. In capital letter letters, nothing. Well, for those who produced, capital letters, no art. If the applicant did nothing creative, capital letters, no art was rubber stamped next to each listed creativity, uh creatively unproductive day, and uh capital letters, nothing was stamped in the subsidy payment box. To get to that stage, people had to complete the other forms, first determining their artistic status through the form, the MAI, SF2 form, on which they answered questions about data, the art form, what was art, and chose their status from many categories. Art lover, art critic, art artist, art object, member of the public, a Philistine, racing cyclist, groupie, connoisseur, common marketer, and other to be specified. Uh, we'd also included alongside that list an upside-down part of the artist status section of the arts council application form that we'd completed to obtain the very grant that made the MAI possible, form one. Perversely, to be completed after Form 2, was the Art Claim Form, the MAI CFI, CF1. That parodied some of the arts council grants questions we'd faced. But with the difference being that the MAI grant currency was specified as art itself, not money. And those whose application was deemed successful art were given a choice of artistic currency. Questions such as why can't your art support itself? And have you tried other ways to get art money? Were references to the struggles we had in funding our work and the process involved in applying for and receiving government funding. In keeping with all institutional procedures, we provided an appeal form for anyone who wished to object to the MAI decision. Unlike the unyielding Social Security Appeal System, the MAI presented positive hope, clearly stating all artistic appeals upheld. We had a steady flow of applicants setting the ball roll sorry, setting the ball rolling with coup members and fizzy doing his best to usher people to the desk. Ah, that sounds so much fun. I just, ah man, it's that's so cool. So they're doing that at the um that that's happening at the uh what was it called? The um uh European economic community no no no sorry the uh the fanfare for Europe. That was happening too, but like alongside with the kinks playing and some sports events. That was happening as well. I love it. Alright. So besides uh besides that was going on, they also were doing musical performances and they they did a they do so many projects. They did a take on uh the British like there had there was like a British uh competition called the British Bonnie Baby Competition, like like the cutest baby or whatever. And they give it they gave it a name of Baby of Europe. That's what that's what Coombe did. So Cozy dressed as a Dutch girl with uh pigtails, polka dots, ribbons, you know, colorful color for color uh colorful, short, checkered, low-cut dress, push-up bra, Genesis as a little baby in the baby stroller, and their friend Fizzy, who dressed up as a clown, and they went to Rotterdam, Holland. That was their that was their first trip abroad. They did like a happening, um, you know, a a little self-show traveling overseas and just, you know, walked around the city or whatever, like pushing the stroller. Alright, after coming back to England, she visited her friend Les. He was in prison, so he was caught when they did a bunch of um uh shoplifting stuff. He was caught and they put him away for like 27 months or something like that, and she felt really bad about it. So she would go. Um, hold on a second. She's she's really nice. Cozy Fanitootti is a really, really good pal, a good friend, and she put up with a lot of shit, man. So anyway, so she would go visit her friend Les. She even brought him a transistor radio, just you know, something nice. And she would also go visit Les's mother, like console her, like, no, it's okay. I I saw him today, everything's alright. Alright, anyway. Coom is doing a project under the name The Revolutionary Spirit with a performance art group called the Kipper Kids. Uh, this is Harry and Harry Kipper. Two, it's like performance artists two guys, right? Who their names are really Martin Sebastian von Hasselberg, and the other guy is called uh Brian Hooth. One of these guys, I forgot which one, would go on to marry Bet Midler. Um, anyway. So they would do this bit. I had to write this down. Like I read it and I stopped. I was like, I can't forget this. I will forget this if I don't write it down right now. So they had this bit where one of like there's two Harries, right? One Harry was was was a boxer. Like this is this is like a performance like outside. Like, you know how people like are are like um busking, playing guitar for change. This is a bit for people outside. Okay, one Harry is dressed as a boxer, he's got the boxing gloves, he's got the shorts, you know, he's got the boxing shoes. The other Harry is a ref. Alright. The Harry who's a boxer is boxing himself. He's boxing himself to the point where he's got a bloody nose and black eyes. He's he's beating the shit out of himself, and it and it just leaves the audience so fucking disturbed. No, he's really doing it, he's really battering himself. Um, so that was a group that they they they did they worked with uh the Kipper Brothers. And I and I did some research on the Kipper Brothers. The Kipper Brothers, the Kipper Kids, sorry, they did some work in movies. I think they were in uh I think they were in that movie with John Ritter, and um he plays um John Ritter is a father and and a husband with with and his wife, and they get sucked into the TV, and they got to um they got to travel through channels. I think there was a there was a there was a take that didn't make the movie that the Kipper brought they were in that movie. Uh I'll have to I'll have to look it up again. I don't remember the movie. Anyway, I think it's called Stay Tuned. I think it's called Stay Tuned around 93 or something like that. Anyway, so um Living in Whole. That's the that's where H-U-L-L, Living in Whole, Cosian Genesis are living, and um, you know, things are changing a little bit. It's really kind of overrun by like drunken skinheads. And uh as we said before, the like you know, if you're here in the States, when you hear skinhead, you think of you know, like Nazism. But that's not originally what a skinhead was. A skinhead was a working class dude, really into like ska and reggae, had a specific dress, uh specific style. So we're just sticking with that. These these but they're very working class, they're kind of ruffians, you know, they're they're kind of like bullies a little bit. So and and Genesis Bioric and Cozy are they're hippies, they really are. They're they're they're they're hippier than hippies, you know what I mean? They're not peace, they're they're they're artists. So they get chased, they get harassed, they get eggs thrown out them, and there's this one story where um oh, on top of that, there's also uh a Hell's Angels uh chapter around Hull, and but they're friends with Genesis Bjorg and Kosey. Like they come, they'll stop by and hang out, like they party together. So anyway, one time, um Kosi and and Genesis Bjorge go go to a movie because they're they're a couple, they're you know, they they love each other and they they they're having a little date, right? They go to the movie theater and there's a whole row behind them of uh skinheads who are throwing popcorn out them, you know, like throwing their shit at them, like you know, making fun of them throughout the movie. So it's just getting worse and worse. So uh Kosi says, let's let's just go. Let's let's let's let's leave like before the movie ends, because it's just gonna get worse. So they do. They leave, right? They they exit the movie theater, and the skinheads follow them, and they're like, Fuck, dude, when are these guys gonna leave us alone? Anyway, they hear like uh they're walking and they hear them following, so they speed up a little bit, and then they hear like a scuffle behind them. Around the corner, their Hell's Angels buddies saw that the skinheads were following Genesis Peorage and Kosey, they just ran in and beat the shit out of the skinheads. They like, oh, we know what's going on. They just ran in and beat the crap out of them. I thought I thought that was an interesting thing, you know. You see these little subcultures here. You see Genesis Pioridge, Kosey, behind them skinheads, and then all of a sudden Hell's Angels. Anyway, I like that story. Okay, so um, from all the stress of it's stressful living in Hull because that's like an everyday thing with with dealing with these stupid skinheads who just won't stop bothering us, right? They move to London and they move to a place called the Space Studio with a with a group of other artists, and um Genesis and a friend um in this building, like you know, like everyone shares an area. Genesis wants to keep his you know stuff safe. He builds a nine by nine foot wooden box. In this box, they put their double mattresses, uh, their their mattresses and their their um beanbag chairs, uh, their dressers, they're to keep their stuff. They live in a little box, and that's padlocked. They can lock it when they when they leave. Alright, so um, I think I mentioned this on the last episode how Coom had a book, like a little, you know, book thing called um 1000 slogans. Like Coombe is there's 1,000 slogans of Coom. This is my favorite one that they came up with. Coom. Here it is. Coom. Coom, the greatest human catastrophe since Adam got a heart on. Good one. I like that one. That one wins. Okay, so um let's go back to like in the meantime. Kose is uh nude modeling. She's making some money doing nude modeling. This is how it works. So she would she got a job with uh these you know, these groups or whatever you call it, uh, under the under the title of a quote unquote a glamour model. This is how it would work. She's in a room or whatever, and a guy who plays pays like an admission or whatever would come up and like you know, hands off whatever, but you you can he would like take photographs, like, okay, take a let me take a picture of your ass, let me take a picture of your your tits, whatever. And uh a lot she said a lot of the times these guys, like that was the whole thing, like modeling, like, oh, you're a photographer. Oh, you can come in here and take pictures of me, like that. So they would have to pay to take pictures. A lot of the times these guys were were just they had no film in the camera. She was like, I never saw them advance the photo. You know, you would like an old camera, you you click it and then you advance. Click it, advance. They would never advance, so there's no film in the camera, they just wanted to take a look. But she talks about how this experience gave her uh like sort of a confidence of being nude, being nude in front of people. Um, and at the at the same time, Genesis is writing all of these uh grants, right? He and the scores a big one. They they get 1,500 pounds, which is like hell yeah. So that's good money. It's good money to use toward their projects, and um but they are a little frustrated. Uh she she makes one of her journal entries where they're they put on a show and everyone was drunk, uh, one of the projectors got stolen. Um so there's there's some frustration with with the direction they're going. Eventually, Coom just becomes um Cozy and Genesis. It's just them. And they start meeting at this place called. AMP AMP. It's an art meeting place, and this is where they they used the term throbbing gristle. We'll get to that later, but the the term where where they found it was kind of in honor of their friend Les, who's still in jail. He's gonna get out soon. But Les would refer to a penis as a throbbing gristle. So that was one in one of their shows. Um a lot of the shows don't really go a lot of the shows don't really go successful, like think of it, depending where you're doing it, right? Depending where you're doing this, this kind of stuff, it's not it you you gotta you gotta think of the audience beforehand, right? So there's one time when they were in Birmingham, which is a very working class, like, you know, get the fuck out of my way, like don't fuck with me area, right? And someone didn't get the memo uh that this is not really a kid-friendly show, and families showed up. I think it was like at a in a pub. This is uh 72 or 73. So families are like moms with their kids and shit, and they're showing up, and Cozy and Genesis are doing a routine, but they have to uh swap um outfits or swap um costumes, so they will that they would change on the stage. Like, like, let me get out of these pants, let me put on these knickers, let me get out of these sweatpants, let me put on these shorts. So, you know, for for a brief moment or two, that they would be naked, whatever. It's just part of changing the costume. But it it it it enraged a bunch of people in the audience, like a teenager threw a cup of milk and see that's what I'm saying. Who who's drinking milk at a at a at a pub, right? Don't bring your kids like a teenager throws a cup of milk in Genesis's uh face, and some people destroy their props. So that's that's an example of um one of their shows I just went haywire. So I'm gonna end it here, and um I wrote this very long quote. I'm I'm not gonna read the entire quote, but it just talks about how everything she's doing, everything Cozy is doing um with her art, it gives her, and it's not about making money, it's just a mean a means to an end, you know, but it gives her this overwhelming sense of freedom, this feeling of self-achievement, uh, this strength in just being myself, which I I love. I w that's why I want to end it here. Like she is confident, I'm not making a lot of money, but I feel I I feel fulfillment in doing this. And maybe you maybe you don't agree with with what she's doing, but it's not, you know, it's she's not hurting anybody, you know. So anyway, so we're gonna stop there and we're gonna continue with part three. Uh next, and and I'm gonna be quick. Like, I've been away from you guys for a month. I'm gonna within it within less than a week, I'll be right back with part three, I promise. Alright, thanks a lot. Thanks for coming back. Thanks for listening to Jay's Rock and Roll Stories. Um tune in next time. We are going to um just continue through the 70s. That's the thing about this book, is there's so much. And I don't want to I don't wanna miss, I don't wanna, you know, not include some of the the heavy hitters, you know? It's just wow. Anyway, thanks again. So if you need anything, just send an email to Jay's Rockin' Hall Stories at Proton.me. Alright, man. Talk to you later. See ya.