General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E. K. Smith
45. Bronson noted the difficulties of staging The Boutique of the 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion, 1980, and the ¥ en Boutique, 1991, within museums. See AA Bronson,“ Copyright, Cash, and Crowd Control: Art and the Economy in the World of General Idea,” in General Idea Editions 1967 – 1995, ed. Barbara Fischer( Toronto: Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga, 2003), 25 – 26. 46. Mike Kelley and AA Bronson,“ Excerpts from a Conversation,” in General Idea Editions 1967 – 1995, ed. Barbara Fischer( Toronto: Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga, 2003), 284. 47. AA Bronson,“ General Idea,” in The Museum as Muse: Artists Reflect( New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1999), 174. 48. This was perhaps compounded by different readings of the work within the United States. The Indiana image was interpreted in the U. S. in relation to the free love movement of the 1960s, which led General Idea’ s painting to be read as a suggestion that AIDS was the result of free love. This reading was different in Canada and Europe, where Indiana’ s painting was understood as speaking to brotherly love. See Mike Kelley and AA Bronson,“ Excerpts from a Conversation,” in General Idea Editions 1967 – 1995, ed. Barbara Fischer( Toronto: Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga, 2003), 287; Luke Nicholson,“ Being Framed by Irony: AIDS and the Art of General Idea”( MA thesis, Concordia University, 2006), 58 – 59;“ A Tribute to Felix Partz,” The Arts Tonight, CBC Radio, July 6, 1994, Audio, Film, and Video Works Series, General Idea fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa. 49.“ A Tribute to Felix Partz,” The Arts Tonight, CBC Radio, July 6, 1994, Audio, Film, and Video Works Series, General Idea fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa. 50. General Idea purchased the floral-scented hand soaps due to their resemblance to the seals in Fin de siècle, 1990. They then added a beer-coaster base( printed pulpboard). 51. John Miller,“ AIDS( 1987),” in General Idea Editions 1967 – 1995, ed. Barbara Fischer( Toronto: Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga, 2003), 291. 52. AA Bronson, correspondence with author, January 10, 2016. 53. Some ambiguity exists as to the exact dates of Partz and Zontal’ s HIV diagnoses. Bronson states that Partz was diagnosed in 1989, with Zontal diagnosed in 1990( Bronson, correspondence with author, January 10, 2016). Fern Bayer suggests that Partz was diagnosed in the late summer of 1990 and Zontal in 1991( Bayer, correspondence with author, November 27 2015). Bayer’ s dates are reflected in the Finding Aid she created for the General Idea Archive at the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.
Style & Technique
1. Warhol’ s work was created in collaboration with Billy Klüver. 2. Seeta Peña Gangadharan,“ Mail Art: Networking Without Technology,” New Media & Society, vol. 11, no. 1 & 2( 2009): 285. 3. Networks for mail art can be formed in an ad hoc manner or through the creation of mailing lists and calls soliciting work on different themes. Often, projects are created through exchange: an artist sends art to another artist, who adds to it and then either returns it to the original producer or mails it on to another node in the network for further creative intervention. 4. AA Bronson, interview with Paul O’ Neill, NDP # 3( 2006), 2, http:// www. northdrivepress. com / interviews / NDP3 / NDP3 _ BRONSON _ ONEILL. pdf.
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