As part of her latest project, Bight of the Twin, Los Angeles-based artist and filmmaker Hazel Hill McCarthy III offers a glimpse into the work of avant-garde performer and “cultural engineer” Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.   

Using an assemblage of archive footage, McCarthy tells the story of P-Orridge and life partner Lady Jaye Breyer’s gender-challenging Pandrogyne project, which saw the pair undergo surgeries to look alike—cementing their shared identity. Here, McCarthy explains what attracted her to the project:

“Looking at the archival materials and personal home movies from Genesis and performances filmed by Lady Jaye, we get an intimate view of their relationship, of lives spent on the fringe of society—congeries of cut-up identities stitched together and self-constituted. 

"So much of the magnetism pulling me toward the wider project came from a desire to experience something that integrated the metaphysical elements of art and religious ritual with daily life. To do this, I could think of no better partner than my close friend and collaborator Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, who physically, mentally and psychologically lives h/er performance everyday.”   

Following Breyer’s untimely death in 2007, P-Orridge continued to identify and live as both himself and Lady Jaye. The wider collaborative project between McCarthy and P-Orridge brought them to the city of Ouidah, in Benin, to uncover the origins of Vodoun (voodoo) and the Cult of Twins. Bight of the Twin premieres at The Rubin Museum of Art, NYC on 15 July 2016.