General Idea

Standing in front of one of General Idea’s AIDS viral image artworks is an experience like no other. Art history often references works of art having an aura, a presence that carries with it an emotion which we are often at a loss to try to explain. General Idea’s work is no different, except I know what the emotion created by the work’s aura is for me: it is the history of queer activism, fighting for a generation of gay men who were dying of AIDS. It is a coming together of communities fighting a government that would not acknowledge our deaths, it is the collective power of mourning.

General Idea were a collective of three conceptual and media-based artists, living in Toronto, Canada and who worked together from 1967 until 1994. After moving to New York City in 1986 the artists responded to a call out for artwork that would change their artistic practice for the next 7 years.

In 1986, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was at its hight in New York City and the American Foundation for AIDS Research had asked 25 galleries, and their artists from across the city, to donate a piece of artwork that would either respond to the epidemic or to contribute a piece of art that could be used in the fundraiser.

The artists contributed a painting called AIDS. This, now iconic image was an adaption of the Robert Indian’s painting LOVE, which Indiana had created in 1965, and which had become a symbol of the flower power generation of free love. The changing of LOVE to AIDS by the artists was in direct reference to what the virus does to the host cells, it mutates and copies the cell. In doing this, General Idea had changed something as beautiful as LOVE, into something as deadly as AIDS.

The trio of artists knew that if they were to use the power of the art world, they could draw more attention to the disease and raise the public’s awareness of AIDS, thus their contribution to the fundraiser. With the AIDS image, General Idea would go onto to create 75 public art projects using the image, which would be used to appear on billboards, carrier bags, trams, posters and wallpaper, and continuing to use the power of the art world for public education and awareness 

Unfortunately, in 1994 the work of General Idea stopped when the collective moved back to Toronto, Canada so that Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal could be with their families as they lost their battle to AIDS. They are survived by the third member of the collective AA Bronson, their contribution to AIDS awareness and their iconic AIDS viral image, which still carries its powerful message of activism.