General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E . K . Smith
The Boutique from the 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion 1980
General Idea , The Boutique from the 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion , 1980 Galvanized metal and Plexiglas , containing various General Idea multiples , prints , posters , and publications , 153.7 x 339.1 x 259.1 cm Art Gallery of Ontario , Toronto
The Boutique from the 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion is an installation that functions as a retail space , playing with ideas of art and commerce while also challenging the viewer ’ s typical gallery experience . Taking the form of a three-dimensional dollar sign made of metal , the Boutique was designed to sell General Idea multiples and publications . Many of these multiples , made specifically for and simultaneously with the Boutique , reference props from General Idea ’ s video work Test Tube , 1979 , such as Double Palette , 1980 , and Liquid Assets , 1980 , both of which were designed to hold test tube – shaped glasses for cocktails . By embedding commerce within the gallery — and art within commerce — General Idea challenged the idea of the museum as a pure space , uninfected by buying and selling .
The 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion — a fictional edifice the artists proclaimed was destroyed by fire in 1977 — referred to in the Boutique ’ s title was the focus of General Idea ’ s works between 1977 and 1986 . In this period General Idea created
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