General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E.K. Smith
Mondo Cane Kama Sutra, 1984, is a set of ten paintings that, among other things,
echoes the colour and aesthetic of American minimalist painter Frank Stella (b. 1936).
One of the group’s most prominent appropriations was their AIDS logo, which reworked
American pop artist Robert Indiana’s (b. 1928) painting LOVE, 1966. General Idea first
employed their logo in the painting AIDS, 1987, and went on to use it in a range of work
that commented on the global AIDS crisis.
Mail Art
Mail art was a key means of production for
General Idea in the group’s early years. A
medium that began in the mid-twentieth century,
mail art emerged in the 1950s and continues to
2
this day. Mail art is created specifically for the
post and is also referred to as correspondence
art or postal art. These works are typically
produced on a small scale and circulated via a
chain-letter-like web of affiliations, often
spanning large geographic distances.
3
General Idea was connected to many mail
artists internationally. “We received mail from all
over North America … Europe, Eastern Europe,
South America, Japan, Australia, and
occasionally even India,” explained AA Bronson.
“Mail came from Gilbert & George, Joseph
General Idea, Manipulating the Self (Phase 1 – A
Borderline Case), 1970, offset on paper,
25.3 x 20.3 cm, edition of approximately two
hundred, various collections
Beuys, Warhol’s Factory, Ray Johnson, various
Fluxus artists, and so on.”4 American artist Ray
Johnson (1927–1995) was a key figure in the history of mail art: associated with Pop art,
Johnson created the first deliberate mail art network, which he dubbed the New York
5
Correspondance School [sic]. General Idea also corresponded with the Vancouverbased collective Image Bank, founded by Michael Morris (b. 1942) and Vincent Trasov
(b. 1947).
Mail art incorporates all manner of images and text, especially mass-produced
imagery, which is often manipulated through collage, rubber stamping, and
photocopying. The medium functions outside of traditional skilled art production,
bypassing the commercial gallery system through postal exchange and thereby creating
its own audiences. Mail art promoted alternative formats, the democratization of art
forms, and a rejection of the commercial gallery system. Two popular slogans were:
“Collage or perish” and “Cut up or shut up,” both of which reference artists’ interest in
reworking found materials.6
Early mail art by General Idea includes Dear General Idea, if I live to be a
hundred I’ll never forgive myself for…, 1972. This work—to which General Idea received
forty-three responses—was structured as a one-page questionnaire/apology.
Participants were prompted to respond to the eponymous question, checking one or
more boxes that corresponded to a list of forty responses. Potential things respondents
61
General Idea, Manipulating the Self (Manipulating
the Scene), 1973, colour offset photolithograph on
wove paper, 73.8 x 58.5 cm, edition of sixty-five
plus artist’s proofs, signed (rubber-stamped) and
numbered, various collections