General Idea was founded in 1967 in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over the course of 25 years, they made a significant contribution to postmodern and conceptual art in Canada and beyond.
The group was both prolific and multi-disciplinary long before it became de rigueur. They worked across a wide range of media including photography, sculpture, painting, mail art, video, installations, multiples, and performance. With their subversive approach and interest in parody and appropriation, General Idea addressed a broad range of social (and art-world) issues including the cult of the artist, mass media, queer identity, and consumerism.
This poster was produce in promotion of the exhibition Test Pattern: T.V Dinner Plates from the Miss General Idea Pavillion at Spiral (Wacoal Art Center), Tokyo, 1988. The initial impetus to create the "Test Pattern" works came from the exhibition venue itself, Spiral, in Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1985 by the Wacoal Corporation, Spiral is an arts center that includes exhibition spaces, a restaurant, a gallery shop, and a cutting-edge video production facility.
General Idea was intrigued by the concept of a place where you can "look, shop, and eat" and thus produced a work that could participate in all three while featuring the prevailing image of Japanese life, a video monitor. Expanding on their 1979 video piece "Test Tube", this now iconic GI test pattern reproduces the TV screen to comment on the ubiquity and dominance of television at the end of the 20th century.
Questions about this piece? Contact us, call +1.416.704.1720, or visit our Toronto Gallery.
"Test Pattern: T.V Dinner Plates from the Miss General Idea Pavillion"
Japan, 1988
Poster: offset lithograph on paper
Unnumbered and unsigned edition
28.75"H 20.5"W (work)
Published by SPIRAL (Wacoal Art Center), Tokyo
Very good condition
Note: Poster published to accompany the exhibition of the same name at Spiral (Wacoal Art Center), Tokyo, Japan (14 October-6 November 1988).
Selected References:
- General Idea Editions: 1967-1995 (Mississauga: Blackwood Gallery, 2003), #8814 (ill.)
- Sack, Adriano (interview). “A Long and Winding Road AA Bronson,” Sleek, Berlin, 11 (summer 2006), 55 (ill.).
Selected Exhibitions:
- Test Pattern: T.V. Dinner Plates from the Miss General Idea Pavillion, Spiral (Wacoal Art Center), Tokyo, Japan, 1988
- General Idea’s ¥en Boutique, Galerie Esther Schipper, Cologne, Germany, 1989
- Art Metropole: Learn to Read / Apprendre à lire, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa, 1998
- General Idea Editions: A Selection, Printed Matter, New York, USA, 2003
- General Idea Editions: 1967-1995, international touring exhibition, 2003-07
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