General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E. K. Smith
Key Works: Showcard Series
1. The Art Gallery of Ontario owns the 130 cards that comprise the initial Showcard Series, 1975. The National Gallery of Canada owns 152 cards, which were donated in 1993. Other works in Showcard Series are held in various collections, including the Carmen Lamanna Collection. 2. General Idea created Showcard Series, comprising 130 cards, in 1975. These were presented in the exhibition Going thru the Notions at Carmen Lamanna Gallery in Toronto, from October 18 to November 6, 1975. The artists added cards to Showcard Series until 1979. See also Peggy Gale, Showcards( Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Photography, 1993), n. p. 3. AA Bronson, correspondence with author, January 6, 2015. Also see Fern Bayer,“ Uncovering the Roots of General Idea: A Documentation and Description of Early Projects 1968 – 1975,” The Search for the Spirit: General Idea 1968 – 1975( Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1997), 114. 4. Quoted in Fern Bayer,“ Uncovering the Roots of General Idea: A Documentation and Description of Early Projects 1968 – 1975,” The Search for the Spirit: General Idea 1968 – 1975( Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1997), 113. 5. Peggy Gale, Showcards( Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Photography, 1993), n. p.
Key Works: Pilot
1. AA Bronson, in correspondence with author, January 3, 2016. 2. The“ basically this” montage uses the same wording found in Showcard Series, 1975 – 79. These cards explain the different conceptual structures of General Idea’ s work. 3. AA Bronson notes that this structure was also used in Test Tube, 1979, and Shut the Fuck Up, 1984. Bronson, in correspondence with author, January 6, 2016. 4. In fact, the group did not form until 1969. However, they often revised their history to account for The 1968 General Idea Pageant and to link General Idea to the historic significance of 1968, which included events such as the Paris Uprising of students and workers. 5. While General Idea does not specifically cite George Orwell in Pilot, the year 1984 alludes to the book thematically. See Fern Bayer,“ Uncovering the Roots of General Idea: A Documentation and Description of Early Projects 1968 – 1975,” The Search for the Spirit: General Idea 1968 – 1975( Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1997), 75. 6. Featured in various iterations, each gown comprises two or three large pyramid shapes— made of venetian-blind slats— stacked on top of one another, encompassing the body of the wearer and obscuring his or her face. The tiered silhouettes of the gowns allude to ball gowns and glamour, while their material qualities reference modern architecture and the ziggurat shape. Each V. B. Gown is an architectural massing study for The 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion. Fern Bayer, correspondence with author, August 23, 2015. For further information on the concept of the V. B. Gowns, see General Idea,“ Form Follows Fiction,” Unmuzzled Ox 4, no. 2( 1976): 23 – 39. 7. AA Bronson credits Pilot as a project that led to General Idea’ s invitation by de Appel to make a pilot project for artists’ television in Amsterdam. AA Bronson, in correspondence with author, January 3, 2016.
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