General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E.K. Smith
The issue’s central article is “Glamour,” a dense fourteen-page manifesto written
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by the artists. It opens with a portrait of the trio as architects. The imagery that follows
includes collages by the group (a favourite medium), as well as General Idea projects
such as Artist’s Conception: Miss General Idea 1971, 1971. The article also plays
with text from philosophical and literary works by authors such as Roland Barthes
(1915–1980), William S. Burroughs (1914–1997), and Gertrude Stein (1874–1946),
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who were key influences on the trio. General Idea altered these text sections arbitrarily;
for example, excerpts from Barthes are rewritten substituting the word “glamour” for the
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word “myth.” The appropriation of their work is justified by General Idea’s assertion that
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glamour necessitates theft: “We knew that in order to be glamorous we had to become
plagiarists.”
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Detail of the “Glamour” manifesto, FILE Megazine, “Glamour Issue,” vol. 3, no. 1 (autumn 1975), 22–23, photograph by General Idea
General Idea acknowledged that glamour was a taboo topic in 1975, despite their
interest in embodying it and employing it for their own needs: “The ‘Glamour’ article…
was written at a time when, within the art scene, it was in extremely bad taste to talk
about glamour. It was the last subject in the world that anybody would mention. And the
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same with money and fame.” The “Glamour Issue” typifies the way General Idea
adopted existing concepts, transforming them through humour and irony.10
Showcard Series 1975–79
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