Cosey Fanni Tutti

Cosey Fanni Tutti

Cosey Fanni Tutti, born Christine Carole Newby in Kingston upon Hull in 1951, is a performance artist and musician associated with industrial, experimental and electronic music. She is known for her work with COUM Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle and Chris & Cosey, and for continuing to release solo recordings and perform as a performance artist in a Dada tradition.

Early work and COUM Transmissions

She performs with COUM Transmissions from 1969. Her involvement changes the group’s character, shifting it from mainly a musical project into a broader performance-based practice. Their work includes props, costumes, dance, improvisation and street theatre.

Throbbing Gristle and later collaborations

In 1976 she co-founds Throbbing Gristle with Chris Carter, Peter Christopherson and Genesis P-Orridge. The group disbands in 1981. She then continues working with Chris Carter as the duo Chris & Cosey. Her later projects also include X-TG, CTI and Carter Tutti Void. Throbbing Gristle reunites in 2004 with all four original members for recordings and events.

Performance art and solo work

Alongside music, Tutti maintains a long career in performance art. She also works as a stripper and in pornographic film and magazines, and some of her performance art draws on that experience. Music appears in some of her performance art work, and this leads to her interest in the idea of “acceptable” music and in sound as a means of physical pleasure or pain. Her solo releases include Time to Tell, a retrospective deluxe box set with photographs and text.

Style and associations

Her work spans ambient, dark ambient, industrial, minimal synth and post-industrial music, and she remains a significant figure in experimental and avant-garde practice.