Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Chocolate Absinthe. Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm
18th October 1976, and London’s prestigious Institute of Contemporary Arts hosts the opening of an exhibition that, almost overnight, will become celebrated, infamous, and notorious all at once. Called PROSTITUTION, the basic premise was that it would be a retrospective of arts collective COUM Transmissions, showcasing their role in the international Mail Art movement, and also display an extensive array of props and documentation from their increasingly transgressive Performance Art actions. Particularly provocative exhibits include Cosey Fanni Tutti’s appearance in pornographic magazines, lovingly framed and signed as artworks, and assemblages by Genesis P-Orridge incorporating Tutti’s used tampons.
Additionally, the opening night featured the formal debut of Throbbing Gristle, presenting the deliberately lo-fi garage musique concrete they dubbed “Music From the Death Factory,” to an invited audience of arts commentators, music journalists, and the regular press. Also included were movers & shakers from the concurrently emerging Punk scene, including members of the Bromley Contingent, Mark Perry & Soo Catwoman, and support band, Chelsea (soon to morph in to Generation X.)
Conservative MP Nicholas Fairburn pronounced “These people are the wreckers of civilization,” subsequently there were questions asked in the House of Commons, and the director of the ICA was forced to resign.
Join Matthew Levi Stevens – and special guest Foxtrot Echo of COUM Transmissions – as they look back over the half-century since to explore the causes, consequences, and contributing factors.
Matthew Levi Stevens is the author of The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs (Mandrake of Oxford, 2014) and various related texts, as well as a range of print and online articles for Beatdom, FANEmag, The Fenris Wolf 12, Furfur, Reality Sandwich, Soft Need 23, and others. He has also spoken at The Last Tuesday Society, The Occult Conference (Glastonbury), The Atlantis Bookshop, Treadwells, and The Horse Hospital.”
The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society is London’s best award-winning alternative cocktail bar hidden within The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. A drinker’s cabinet of wonder filled curious cocktails & extraordinary elixirs —The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour is truly a hidden treasure of East London. Opened by collectors, drinks historians & absinthe experts — Allison Crawbuck (Brooklyn) & Rhys Everett (London) in 2016, the duo bring with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of spirits & the macabre.
Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour. Celebrating spirit’s connection to art, literature, magic & mixology, Devil’s Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today.
The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances.
