General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E.K. Smith
During the 1980s the poodle was a key
formal device General Idea employed to
represent themselves as queer artists. They
seized on the poodle as a means of selfrepresentation due to the animal’s “banal and
effete” presence and used it to speak to
normative understandings of sexual roles.1 The
group continued to exploit the poodle motif, most
notably in P is for Poodle, 1983/89, a
photographic portrait in which the artists are
dressed as dogs.
The imagery in Mondo Cane Kama Sutra
was featured in the prestigious art publication
LEFT: General Idea, P is for Poodle, 1983/89, chromogenic print (Ektachrome), 75.9 x 63.4 cm, edition of
three with one artist’s proof, various collections RIGHT: General Idea, Mondo Cane Kama Sutra (detail),
1984, fluorescent acrylic on canvas, 243.8 x 304.8 x 10 cm, Collection General Idea
Artforum, as a work titled Triple Entendre, 1983,
and in a 1983 issue of the artists’ publication
FILE Megazine, as well as in their video Shut the Fuck Up, 1985.
Shut the Fuck Up 1985
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