General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E. K. Smith
General Idea, FILE Megazine,“ Glamour Issue,” vol. 3, no. 1, 1975 Web offset periodical, eighty pages plus cover, black and white reproductions and eight-page insert by Image Bank Various collections
Created by General Idea in 1972, FILE Megazine ran for twenty-six issues, ending in 1989. Superficially, the publication mimicked the well-known American magazine LIFE, though its content did not. The title FILE was a clear pun on LIFE, as well as an overt reference to the notion of art imitating life and life imitating art. In the artists’ words, FILE was“ a cultural parasite carried along in the mainstream blood stream of commercial distribution systems and subtly altered the body of its host.” Filled with“ wisecracks, wordplay, and cryptic layers of fact and fiction,” the publication provided a broad, multifaceted platform through which General Idea could further their own self-invented mythology.
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The“ Glamour Issue” of FILE illuminates, in the group’ s words,“ the story of glamour and the part it played in our art.” In the issue’ s editorial, the members of General Idea directly address the slippage between fact and fiction:“ All myth and no content. Or is it vice versa?”— this assessment reflecting General Idea’ s practice as a whole.
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This publicity shot of various issues of FILE Megazine includes a double-page spread from the“ Glamour” manifesto in FILE Megazine,“ Glamour Issue,” vol. 3, no. 1( autumn 1975), 20 – 21, photograph by General Idea
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