General Idea

White glossy paper bag with offset adhesive-backed red, white, black label.

27,5 x 40,5 x 10 cm. Edition size unknown.

Produced for the presentation of the Yen Boutique (1989) in the exhibition of multiples General Idea at S. L. Simpson Gallery, Toronto, 4-30 March 1993.

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General Idea was a Canadian conceptual art collective founded in 1969 by AA Bronson, Felix Partz, and Jorge Zontal. Active for over two decades, the group explored media, branding, spectacle, and the circulation of images, often appropriating the language of advertising, television, and pop culture. Their work—spanning performance, publications, installations, and multiples—critically examined how power, desire, and ideology are shaped through mass communication. General Idea is especially known for its influential engagement with the AIDS crisis, transforming activism into enduring conceptual form. The collective’s work remains a cornerstone of late 20th-century conceptual and media art.