00:01:25.140Cozy Fanny Tootie, born Christine Carol Newby, was a regular girl, raised in a port town in the post-war drudgery and PTSD hangover of England, 1951, who would go on to become irregular and shape the way I think about art, sex, music, and the occult.
00:01:48.020Christine eventually became Cozy, short for Cosmosis, a portmanteau of cosmos and osmosis,
00:01:56.380a gradual absorption of the whole of the universe.
00:02:01.380She added the Fanny Tutti when the surname was suggested to her by a friend, male artist
00:02:06.860Robin Klasnick, based on the title of the opera Cosi Fan Tutti, meaning literally,
00:02:12.720that's all women do, or all women are the same.0.99
00:02:17.200Please note that while in America, a fanny refers to a bum, a bottom, a butt, in the UK, fanny means vagina.0.99
00:02:26.360So, if we take a moment to break it down, her name becomes Cosmos, Osmosis, Vagina, Everything.0.99
00:02:37.340Which somehow, strangely, makes perfect sense.
00:02:41.520In her lifetime, she has released into the world countless actions, performance and visual art pieces, and sensory installations, as well as over 50 albums of music
00:02:55.640Cozy Fanny Tutti helped permanently alter modern musical consciousness with sonic and visual transgressions rooted in electronic experimentation and socio-political confrontation
00:03:08.700Throbbing Gristle disturbed the music business
00:03:12.820Not only because their music was spawned from a cauldron of coal-stained industry
00:03:57.780Cozy's pretty candid about Jen's outbursts, tantrums, violence, and manipulations
00:04:04.800I'm guessing Jen wasn't willing or able to deny Cozy's side of the story, and so they just left it out.
00:04:12.400Left Cozy out of their story as much as they could.
00:04:15.340That's something we've struggled with from time to time with this Missing Witches project.
00:04:20.520Falling in love only to have the research render the object of our affection credibly problematized.
00:04:27.100We ruminate on what to put in, how much to leave out,
00:04:30.280And we made a decision early on to keep honesty as part of our legacy, to leave in the imperfect bits as homage to our own imperfections, to sacrifice comfort and ease for the sake of wholeness because, as Cozy puts it, the beauty is in the whole package.
00:04:50.920What have you sacrificed, my dear, sweet witches?
00:04:55.580In your story, what have you sacrificed in order to be yourself?
00:05:01.120To live authentically, imperfectly, and allow those you love to do the same?
00:05:06.860What have you sacrificed? What have you left out?
00:05:11.600Cozy's motto is, my life is my art, my art is my life, and so it had to be.
00:05:17.360After her infamous exhibition, Prostitution, opened in London in 1976 and made headlines, her mother never spoke to her again.
00:05:28.180Her father had already disowned her years prior for being a teenage rebel, wearing short skirts and, despite being an academically inclined avid student at school, breaking all his rules at home.
00:24:12.380And they have a son, Nick, who's now grown and plays gigs with his parents.
00:24:17.520She calls him the best Chris and Cozy collaboration that ever was.
00:24:22.840See, sometimes, when we traverse the world on our own terms,
00:24:28.140we find people on that path who love us for exactly who we are the beauty in the whole package
00:24:38.740our potential for being is in our hands
00:24:44.160heck yeah hi risa hi amy thank you for taking me on this uh sonic
00:24:57.620political badass art journey yeah they really fucking loved it thank you for coming with me
00:25:04.960cozy can be a bit scary it'll be kind of difficult for me to sift through photos of her work to0.58
00:25:12.840create an instagram post that won't immediately be taken yeah right
00:25:18.540and bless her for it yeah oh my god yeah i want to know what you think about1.00
00:25:25.560that art practice um as a feminist practice of using sexuality like using our own sexuality0.97
00:25:33.460cutting up pornography using our own nudity like playing with object and objectified
00:25:39.800how do you how do you think about that I think that
00:25:44.880Cozy's manner of doing it is very very very interesting to me um because like we talked
00:25:54.960about she she was making these like porno mag cut-ups but that just that wasn't good enough
00:26:00.480for her she wanted to be in the pictures that she would then be cutting up to make her art and she0.99
00:26:06.880she worked as if any other you know sex industry model would work and so she would have to go and1.00
00:26:14.800find these magazines after the fact and she didn't necessarily know where the pictures were going0.98
00:26:21.420so it was almost like this was like an extra you know practice and the art was to go and find these
00:26:28.580things that had been made of her I think it's the yeah right and this was this was happening in like
00:26:36.740you know 1969 through like 1975 what a leap like to feed yourself into the objectification
00:26:45.860like it's not it's not pretend or you know it's not a it's not a practice she didn't do the photos
00:26:54.540with a friend or an art photographer and then cut them up like she went all the way through yeah0.56
00:27:00.380I mean she did do that too for sure but yeah she talks about this one um sex industry photographer
00:27:07.260Zabo um who according to her was like the only one that she loved the only one that she felt
00:27:14.460respected by the only one that she felt some any kind of sense of collaboration any sense of
00:27:20.380anything other than just being a body right I mean the this was integral to her and her journey but
00:27:27.320I mean for me I've always been kind of more modest like nudity has not I'm not really an
00:27:34.580exhibitionist like that I don't have any problem with other people's nudity I'm not like prudish
00:27:38.880but it's not something that I've even been compelled to investigate in any you know way
00:27:44.920other than personal but I think I have missed out on a lot of personal information in in in having
00:27:55.100this modesty yeah I think that again I mean I don't want to talk about this in terms of my
00:28:01.400personal life like my slut phase which I which I did have and I I encourage as long as people are0.98
00:28:07.100being safe and respectful and consensual you know i i i want you to go out and have mad wild sex and0.94
00:28:13.700and all those wonderful things but it was never something that i that was the focus for me
00:28:20.000maybe is the thing like i would never go out and try to pick up like i would go out dancing
00:28:27.620because i wanted to dance or i would go to the concert because i wanted to see the band
00:28:33.120you know yeah totally i like it's interesting to think about like times when i chose to like
00:28:45.360present in a sexualized way they're like pretty few and far between it wasn't something i mean i
00:28:51.820have but it always felt like a character like the time i remember feeling that power that
00:28:58.220like sexuality power the most was like backstage at a show in high school where I think I was
00:29:06.320playing like a prostitute or something which is weird to have high school girls go to the
00:29:13.640boys school to play like the three speaking roles for women and one of them is a prostitute0.64
00:29:18.620weird thing that happens in the world um but backstage i was like feeling myself you know
00:29:27.580like i had this dress on and the makeup and the hair and like it is a bit like being possessed
00:29:34.540like things were coming out of my mouth that like i like sexual references and stuff that i don't
00:29:38.700even think i really got you know like i was just like playing in my body in a way i'd never played
00:29:44.240before was being like adult sexy as like a game and I think that's really fun I remember Angela
00:29:52.480saying when we were starting our conversation in the missing Samhain the missing Samhain episode
00:29:57.980which you'll hear tomorrow listeners yeah you'll hear you'll hear the one that came about after
00:30:04.260the missing one and you'll hear more of that story tomorrow but um I remember her saying at
00:30:10.800the beginning of that conversation that like dressing up in lingerie for herself at home
00:30:16.980and putting on music was like giving her a lot of power maybe actually was in a different
00:30:22.940conversation with Angela it doesn't matter you can edit my kids out here but but yeah I've been
00:30:29.620thinking about that since then that like it doesn't I can put on that sexuality and have that
00:30:36.040performative element without it being for an outside audience and that might be a way for me
00:30:43.820to have some of the power without feeling the the weird disruption in selfhood that happens for me0.89
00:30:51.740and that I think a lot of feminist series have written about where it's like I'm object and I'm0.90
00:30:56.740objectifying at the same time and is there a space in between those two for agency and Cozy's like0.99
00:31:03.600cited as one of the people who finds that space for agency because she interacts with every step
00:31:09.740I think yes yes and and that's the thing with cozy is like you say it's not pretend but
00:31:15.120there was an element of irony to it there there is a bit of like um a bit of what you think is
00:31:24.260happening is is not what's happening especially you know she she was there she would be
00:31:31.120dancing in the strip club one night and performing nude in a gallery the next night0.83
00:31:36.660and it was the same body different names because she used to suit her name when she was a stripper
00:31:41.620but um it was the same person it was the same body but the context being different changed the
00:31:49.500whole everyone's understanding of that act right but to go back to what you were saying this is
00:31:55.320something that you can do even without a partner you don't need to put on your lingerie for a
00:32:01.160partner this is something you can absolutely do in the mirror or without a mirror and i i would
00:32:07.900love that i would love like you know and i think that's part of why you know sexy is sort of one of
00:32:14.060the default costumes around halloween time you know because it's like this excuse this opportunity
00:32:22.600for a safe environment to dress like that you know you don't necessarily feel comfortable
00:32:32.440walking down the street in your fishnets and your boob top um on a regular friday night but
00:32:39.500on halloween there's a there's this the safety of not sticking out you're you're blending into
00:32:47.540a sea of people in fishnets and fright wigs and you know i love and admire the people who claim
00:32:56.260claim the radical safe space of wearing the sexy thing that draws the attention draws the eyes
00:33:02.980makes them visible makes them a target on a regular night like i think that there's so much0.99
00:33:07.780power in that i think that's part of why there's power in like young teenage girls who are like
00:33:12.260playing with their sexuality and are fucking fearless they're just like no the world shouldn't
00:33:18.220be dangerous for me no matter what I'm wearing stop it and they're right problem not mine0.96
00:33:24.160you know I had a girlfriend who was like exploring clothing as almost like an art practice you know
00:33:30.660she would sort of dress up in different personalities and then like go out and see how
00:33:35.440and we all do that in some way when we're putting on clothes in the morning but for her it was like0.95
00:33:39.820a very conscious and intentional practice and i was like you need to try slut and up until this
00:33:48.160point she hadn't been scared at her project at all and she was like she's a modest person you know0.85
00:33:55.000in dress um i was like see how people treat you if you're wearing red lipstick and a short skirt
00:34:02.900and a low-cut top that to me would be very interesting for you and for me as your friend
00:34:09.440who's hearing about this journey and she was literally like i'm not sure i can do it like it
00:34:15.540was the one thing where she wasn't sure and and it's because it's not in this specific instance
00:34:21.460instance it's not just oh what will people think of me or you know like i don't want to it's
00:34:29.140dangerous because that that's the the line and probably the truth that we've been fed you know0.99
00:34:38.300is that it women's sexuality is dangerous this is you know we could trace this to witch hunts0.99
00:34:45.380you know like women's sexuality is dangerous for women and for society0.75
00:34:53.860yeah i think there's something so interesting too about like the way that1.00
00:35:02.280like playing with sexuality and then playing with sound and technology around sound as a
00:35:11.640form of amplification of the self you know that she was engaged in both those practices
00:35:17.100is super telling and super exciting like the
00:35:22.440the idea of amplifying her own expression of self her own like journey into herself her own body
00:35:34.140and I mean you say that in that episode so poignantly that like you quote her talking about
00:35:41.740you know there was this sense that like you had to be interested in Crowley and you had to be
00:35:46.260interested in fucking mansons and you had to be interested in huxley and like those things are0.68
00:35:54.080interesting for sure we've all gone down those paths but she had this sense that those things0.98
00:35:59.580were about those men and she needed to find a practice that was about her own strangeness that
00:36:10.340was about her own inner worlds her own doors of perception you know her own tracing of the
00:36:16.720complexities of what could go wrong in control patterns even when you're tapping into some of
00:36:23.120these like hidden or occulted knowledges that those things can become very dangerous and very
00:36:28.980de-powering for people in a group or whatever she talks about the mansions but i think that's so
00:36:35.140interesting that like to the idea of like follow following our own journey whether that's through
00:36:41.780sexuality or getting loud or like performing versions of ourselves that are rehumanizing for
00:36:49.260us in whatever way that looks like that that is a fundamental part of our practice of our magic you
00:36:57.600know yeah that's the strange interesting stuff that i'm craving that i've been missing you know
00:37:03.440like i want to see people people's inner worlds yeah and that that's why i i claim the term which
00:37:11.820but i don't call myself an occultist because like i've obviously you know through this project and
00:37:17.620before like i've done a lot of reading and i read and i read and i read and i study and i i look at
00:37:25.400what other people have done and where they find you know and we're inspired by other people's
00:37:30.480workings every single day but it's usually the stuff that comes from nowhere everywhere the
00:37:38.400cosmos um that really like feels magical to me you know when I'm going through a spell that
00:37:46.660someone has written it feels magical but when I'm doing a spell of my own creation it feels
00:37:52.060more magical totally I feel the same way I was on that around grandfather fire podcast this week
00:38:02.240and had such a lovely conversation with those folks and they were asking me about my own
00:38:06.980spiritual path and I sort of had to think out loud about it for a bit coming from artistic
00:38:11.760practice and then improvised you know solitary work and you know I kind of told the whole story
00:38:18.300but a big piece of telling that story is being like a lot of this is just really private
00:38:25.840yeah like you know i like i i read and explore and like telling the stories and
00:38:32.720playing those playing with different other people's practices but um i really related
00:38:38.940to that in what cozy said that that is that finding a spirituality or whatever you want
00:38:44.600to call it has to be incredibly personal and private and play you know something that you
00:38:52.840find through the weirdness of your own body the weirdness of your own strange synapses you know0.98
00:39:01.220that that's that's the real juicy shit Risa can you tell your listeners before we spiral at0.99
00:39:07.700your listeners they're yours now they're into two camps yeah they're gonna do a dance battle0.99
00:39:15.600can you tell our listeners and our coven mates and our friends
00:39:22.620hey gorgeous um how getting loud impacted or dare i say saved your life
00:39:28.940um uh you yes i the story that i tell in the book and i'll i'll tell a different
00:39:36.660version of it every time, I guess. But I was singing. I was always singing. I would walk to
00:39:50.200and from school making up songs, but it was so quiet. I didn't realize how quiet it was, honestly.
00:39:56.720I started, you know, in early grad school, I started putting on live shows and, you know,
00:40:04.580doing sound checks and working with musicians all the time and then i started you know sometimes i
00:40:10.200would be in a group of people and we'd be jamming or whatever and only then did i realize like
00:40:15.760i'm basically whispering all all the time um i was listening to karen kilgariff's live at the
00:40:25.420bootleg and she says she wrote a song that she didn't realize she couldn't sing because she
00:40:30.500wrote it whispering and then when it came time to play it she realized it was too high for her to
00:40:36.240actually sing and I think that was a lot of my experience I thought my voice was like really
00:40:41.560really high because I was only ever kind of squeak whispering um and I was in a long relationship
00:40:49.540with a brilliant and kind person that ended up being kind of a prison for me that wasn't
00:40:55.340really anybody's fault but um yeah and and you know part of that has a lot to do with technology
00:41:03.200like that that you know we were both so deep into thinking about open source software and
00:41:09.000and technology and our house was full of computers and it felt like that hum of the computers was a
00:41:13.940part of the of the migraines and of the ideas that went into my thesis at the time and stuff but
00:41:20.340there reached a point where I had to leave and I tried to leave a couple times and it didn't work
00:41:28.260and then um one day I left I left and um just walked out the door with very very few things
00:41:35.460and and went to a friend's house and kind of puked and cried and fell apart and then I think it was
00:41:40.600the next day I went to your house and um you and I would get together and sing and sing music and
00:41:49.200stuff and I think I was mostly quiet but I was having fun and like learning from you but it was
00:41:54.920really like leaning like I couldn't talk about what had happened because it was too complicated
00:41:59.440to talk about why I had to leave a good person like that was just still something that's like
00:42:05.080very I could write 100 work 100 pages about and still not really understand it but0.98
00:42:09.040um but you were like do you want to talk or do you or do you just want to sing some shit0.94
00:42:17.380so we just sang some shit and it was a very physical feeling in my mind it's all in one0.99
00:42:23.300moment in one time of playing music but it might have been spread out but just of feeling and it0.98
00:42:32.080was leaning up against your voice because amy has a huge beautiful and very uplifting voice
00:42:39.120there's space for other people in amy's noise which is a real gift um because she's like
00:42:47.320she's like she does she it's the mean auntie right it's like uh she doesn't have a lot of0.99
00:42:53.060space for you to fuck around and like uh feel sorry for yourself but you can but she'd rather0.99
00:42:58.840you just fucking sing or something i don't know i'm trying to paraphrase a vibe it's not1.00
00:43:04.040um but there's something about that that increasingly made space like i could my0.99
00:43:10.240lungs could take in more air i could yell louder i had made a decision that i knew was right i could
00:43:16.900And so those two things happened at the same time where suddenly it felt like my lungs grew double the size, like the bottom constraint in my lungs just broke open and I could take a bigger breath.
00:43:34.060and something in my throat broke open and trying to just sing loud enough with you and I was crying
00:43:39.820a little bit and I was out and I was free and my voice became like you know I don't a lot louder
00:43:46.900like four times louder um and I could find you know where my my voice actually fit against and
00:43:55.780within yours and the guitars and ukuleles and stuff and I just suddenly took up more space and
00:44:01.820people always say like let yourself take up space and you don't know what that means until you break
00:44:07.400through something that has been like like lacing you in and you didn't even know it was there
00:44:12.480and then you take up more space and you breathe differently and you're louder and you're like0.98
00:44:18.000fuck everybody take up more space but you didn't know you didn't know the meaning of the words0.98
00:44:23.420until it happened in your body I hope that's the story you wanted me to tell when you asked that0.99
00:44:28.360yeah yeah because I mean again I think this this we can tie it all up right now by saying like
00:44:34.940you know if you give yourself a safe space to be loud and or sexy um loud and sex let's go with
00:44:42.440loud and sexy um you can like cozy you know discover things that you didn't know about yourself
00:44:48.800or open up your lungs you know symbolically or or literally you can open up parts of you
00:44:56.840that you were either very quiet and so you couldn't really hear them or that you didn't
00:45:02.840know existed and i want to add like if you have felt constrained by a performative idea of sexy
00:45:13.520or like if you felt like your gender identity had to be performed in a traditional femme sense
00:45:19.440you can find those other noises for yourself those other dimensions for yourself possibly1.00
00:45:26.120by playing in the other direction so you don't have to play more sexy you could play more mask
00:45:32.740like you could you could play you could play more monster you could you know like you could play
00:45:39.400there's a there's a twitter bot that does like the gender for today is the smell of grandma's pie
00:45:45.500or like you can play um at the other reaches of that body like you can get a go to a thrift store0.98
00:45:54.180get a men's giant men's um coat like what am i thinking of like a you know like a dick tracy0.89
00:46:01.860like a trench coat trench yeah that was that was something that i did for a while i had this giant0.97
00:46:06.740oversized over shoulder trench coat and this stupid big felt hat you know and people would0.73
00:46:13.700laugh my friends would laugh when i went to shows like that but it was part for me of being like1.00
00:46:18.180some some some expressions of sexuality gave me power but some expressions of fuck you to0.97
00:46:25.940sexuality gave me power so i want to add that yes yes let's put it all in the cauldron and play0.99
00:46:32.640and go bobbing for apples of our own sense of self i love that yeah0.99
00:46:38.380face first face first loud and sexy and blessed fucking be0.99
00:46:45.040and blessed. You must be a witch. The Missing Witches podcast is created by Risa Dickens and1.00
00:46:53.680Amy Turok with insight and support from The Coven at patreon.com slash missingwitches.
00:47:01.120Amy and Risa are the co-authors of Missing Witches, Reclaiming True Histories of Feminist
00:47:06.040Magic, which is available now wherever you get your books or audiobooks, and of New Moon Magic,
00:47:12.70013 Anti-Capitalist Tools for Resistance and Re-enchantment, coming Fall 2023.