General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E.K. Smith
18. AA Bronson, “AA Bronson Reflects on Sexual Themes in the Work of General Idea,” San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art, http://www.artbabble.org/video/sfmoma/aa-bronson-reflectssexual-themes-work-general-idea.
19. The poodle appears in many General Idea projects in the 1980s. For instance, in conjunction
with an exhibition, the group created Ghent Flag, 1984, a flag for the city of Ghent, Belgium, in
which they replaced the lion (traditionally featured on the flag) with a poodle. The reception of this
work was controversial. Bronson, writing to his parents, explained, “[C]ity hall is in an uproar—the
mayor has made a public statement in favour of poodles (poodles are alert while lions sleep)—the
papers love it—today the Minister of Tourism was caricatured in the paper as a General Idea poodle.
Today 50 full-size flags go up around the city.” See Bronson, Correspondence, “Ghent Flag,” 1984,
Project Series, General Idea fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa; Pierre
Alexandre de Looz, “Asked and Answered: AA Bronson of General Idea,” T: The New York Times
Style Magazine, October 14, 2011, http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/askedanswered-aa-bronson-of-general-interest/?hpw&_r=0.
20. AA Bronson, correspondence with author, January 10, 2016.
21. Hywel Tuscano, “Barking at the Door,” October 27, 2004, Daily Xtra,
http://www.dailyxtra.com/vancouver/barking-at-the-door-54337?m=/privacy-policyterms-of-use.
22. Art historian Virginia Solomon suggest the group “presents an alternative and expanded notion
of sexuality as part of its subcultural politics.” See Solomon, “What Is Love? Queer Subcultures and
the Political Present,” e-flux, 2013, http://www.e-flux.com/journal/what-is-love-queer-subculturesand-the-political-present.
23. Other McLuhan books in the 1960s included The Gutenberg Galaxy, 1962; The Medium is the
Message: An Inventory of Effects, 1967; and War and Peace in the Global Village, 1968. McLuhan
was extremely prolific and published works before and after this decade. For a complete listing see
“Marshall McLuhan: Bibliography,” http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/bibliography.
24. AA Bronson as quoted by Fern Bayer, correspondence with author, August 24, 2015.
25. This parody led to significant repercussions in June 1974, when the mimicry of FILE came to the
attention of Time Life Incorporated. The organization sued for trademark infringement. Addressing
this battle in the pages of FILE, the artists conceded defeat to secure the ongoing success of the
publication under the headline “FILE Chose Life over LIFE.” See “Editorial,” FILE Megazine, vol. 3,
no. 3 (spring 1977): 17; subsequently, the FILE logo was redesigned.
26. Luke Nicholson, “Being Framed by Irony: AIDS and the Art of General Idea” (MA thesis,