General Idea Editions 1967-1995

Additional Information

Jorge Zontal, AA Bronson, and Felix Partz

Other associated events: Closing reception, Friday, September 3, 7:30 pm

Canada's best-known collaborative team of artists - General Idea's Jorge Zontal, AA Bronson, and Felix Partz - came to international attention for their incisive interventions in the contemporary media environment. Pioneers of conceptual and media-based practices in Canada, their work included performance, video, installation, photography, as well as the manufacture of numerous mass-produced items such as wallpaper, posters, and magazines. Seminal in the history of art in Canada and internationally, their collaboration became a model for artist-initiated activities and successive generations of younger artists. To this day their work remains acutely relevant, not only as a model for collaboration, but also for the articulations of queer identity and the imaginative formation of alternative communities. General Idea perfected the principle of inhabitation of the forms of popular and media culture (such as boutiques, "Life" magazine, beauty pageants, press conferences etc.), and of bending these to their own needs. An integral, important part of General Idea's practice has been the design and fabrication of mass-produced articles, multiples and editions. Including postcards, prints, posters, as well as wallpaper, balloons, crests and pins, General Idea editions are not just a commercial product, that is, secondary or even subordinated manifestations of more important original works. Instead, they form an important and coherent grouping of the complete work and the group's broader artistic concepts, such as the notion of the image as virus, and the devaluation of originality, copy-right and artistic genius. The editions provide a glimpse of the development of artist-initiated networks in Canada, and key to General Idea's ironic and critical analysis of the art business, the gallery as a commercial enterprise, and of the role of the media.

General Idea, General Idea Editions 1967-1995 (Installation View), 2004.