General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E. K. Smith
Taking place in the theatre lobby, the pageant was centred on a small platform surrounded by flower arrangements discarded by a funeral parlour. During the talent portion of the pageant, contestant Miss Honey( Honey Novick) showed off her skills on the telex machine. Other contestants were costumed as bears: Belinda Bear, Danny Bear, and Rachel Bear, all of whom sang and danced. The judges declared Miss Honey the winner and crowned her Miss General Idea 1970. The pageant was documented on video. Describing the impact of the event, Partz stated,“ Everyone was quite mystified as to what was going on. Because it looked quite real, because Miss Honey was quite a good actress.”
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The popularity of the pageant format was of central importance to General Idea and significantly shaped the artists’ work going forward. Pointing to the flexibility and utility of the pageant format, curator and art historian Fern Bayer explains,“ The beauty pageant format
Performance documentation of General Idea, The 1970 Miss General Idea Pageant, 1970, a component of the project What Happened, 1970, part of the Festival of Underground Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Toronto, 1970, Collection General Idea, photograph by General Idea. Here Miss General Idea 1969, Granada Gazelle, awards the crown of Miss General Idea 1970 to Miss Honey
provided General Idea with a basic vocabulary of contemporary cultural clichés and allowed them to express their ideas about glamour, borderline cases, culture / nature interfaces, the role of the artist as an inspiration cultural device, the body of myths surrounding the art world, and the relationship of the artist to the media and the public.”
The group’ s performance XXX( bleu), 1984, spoke to the connections between artists, the art world, and the media, while also referencing art history. It was performed in Geneva, Switzerland, at the Centre d’ art contemporain Genève. On a set that played the part of an artist’ s studio, the members of General Idea performed an action in which they painted three large canvases with“ X” symbols. The colour used was International Klein Blue, created by French artist Yves Klein( 1928 – 1962), renowned for his monochromatic blue paintings. In 1960 Klein famously used nude female models as“ brushes” to transfer paint to canvas. His performance was treated with the utmost seriousness— it was a black-tie event, complete with an orchestra that accompanied Klein’ s use of the nude women’ s bodies to create paintings. General Idea offered a pointed commentary on this by appropriating Klein’ s performance but employing three white, faux stuffed poodles, dripping with blue paint, to inscribe an“ X” on each canvas.
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A contestant for The 1970 Miss General Idea Pageant, 1970, a component of the project What Happened, 1970, part of the Festival of Underground Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Toronto, 1970, photograph by General Idea. Five or six contestants dressed in bear costumes, while Miss Honey, the entrant ultimately proclaimed the winner, wore a peau-desoie gown, a fox stole, and a tiara
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