General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E.K. Smith
General Idea found sixteen potential
applicants among their network—artists across
North America—and mailed out entry kits to
these “finalists.” The invitation promised
potential competitors the chance to win “fame,
3
fun, and fortune.” Each kit contained rules and
regulations, pageant documents, and a pageant
4
gown. Thirteen artists responded. Those who
participated in the competition took up the task,
submitting photographs that featured their
choice for Miss General Idea (dressed in the
provided gown). These entries were exhibited at
A Space in Toronto.
The extravagant award ceremony took
place in Walker Court at the Art Gallery of
Ontario, Toronto, and presented a series of
5
excerpted moments from a pageant. The
Vincent Trasov, Marcel Dot, 1971, gelatin silver
print, 25.4 x 21.6 cm, Collection General Idea.
This is a submission photograph from Vincent
Trasov, who chose Michael Morris (a.k.a. Marcel
Dot) as a contestant for The 1971 Miss General
Idea Pageant, 1971
ceremony was carefully scripted and included
music, speeches, and prizes. It was all captured
on video as a television event, with the crowd as a stand-in for a television audience.
6
The competition judges were well-regarded figures in the art scene, including Daniel
Freedman, David Silcox, and Dorothy Cameron. Freedman was one of the original
members of General Idea and had lived with the group on Gerrard Street West and
Yonge Street. In material for the pageant, he was identified as an actor, “General Idea
Glamour Consultant, and the star of the MGM spectacular Fortune and Men’s Eyes.”7
Silcox was then the Assistant Dean in the Faculty of Fine Arts at York University and
had been the former head of Visual Arts at the Canada Council.8 Cameron was a wellknown critic and art consultant who was a regular on Canada Council juries and had
given Partz his first Canada Council grant.
9
The 1971 Miss General Idea crown was awarded to Vancouver artist Michael
Morris (b. 1942), who at that moment announced his new name: Marcel Dot. The judges
declared that his submission succeeded in “capturing ‘Glamour’ without falling into it.”
Glamour Issue 1975
19
10
General Idea, The 1971 Miss General Idea
Pageant, 1971, poster, photo screen print on
salmon wove paper (edition of ten on white
paper), 101.6 x 66 cm, various collections