cosey fanni tutti

SZABO SESSIONS

A pioneer in performance art, Cosey Fanni Tutti began her career in Hull, England, cofounding the radical electronic groups COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle with the infamous Genesis P-Orridge. After moving to London, she modeled for amateur photographers and adult magazines, adopting different names and personas, and eventually worked as a stripper. For Cosey, art is life; her performances extend directly from her lived experiences — rituals, striptease, and actions staged both in art spaces and within the world of pornography.

In the Szabo Sessions, Cosey reappropriated a selection of outtakes from an archive of highly choreographed photographs taken of her in the late 1970s by Szabo, an American photographer based in London. These large-scale photographic works engage with glamour and self-sexualization, enabling her to reclaim control over her image. This series is a pro-porn manifesto, rejecting the idea that women involved in pornography are automatically objectified….