G. B. Jones

This article is about the person. For the book of her art, see G. B. Jones (book).

G. B. Jones
Born	Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Post-punk
Occupation(s)	Musician, artist, filmmaker
Instrument(s)	Vocals, guitar, drums
Years active	1980s-present

G. B. Jones is a Canadian artist, filmmaker, musician, and publisher of zines based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her art work has been featured at galleries around the world, and her films screened at numerous film festivals, both in Canada and abroad. Her most recent musical project is Opera Arcana.

Music

In the early 1980s Jones joined her first band, the experimental industrial electropunk group, Bunny & the Lakers. Led by songwriter Peter Morgan and including Howard Pope among other fluctuating members, the band released one limited edition LP record called Numbers, which has since become a collector's item. The trio performed live only once in Toronto.

From the early 1980s to the late 1990s, Jones performed with the experimental post-punk band Fifth Column, playing drums, guitar and background vocals, and was one of the co-founders of the group. The band's first album, To Sir With Hate was released in 1985.

The group went on to release three singles and two more albums. All-Time Queen of the World was released in 1990 and a video for the song "Like This" was produced. Their last album, 36-C, contained perhaps their best-known and most controversial song, "All Women Are Bitches". Released prior to the album as a single by K Records in 1992, "All Women Are Bitches" was reviewed by Everett True and chosen "Single of the Week" by the UK paper Melody Maker. Along with the "36-C" album, the band released two more singles and also appeared on a number of compilation albums and film soundtracks. In 2002, Fifth Column's last release appeared on the Kill Rock Stars compilation album Fields and Streams.

In October 2007, the recording Raise Your Paw to the Sky And Break The Truce by the Italian dark ambient group Mariae Nascenti was released on the Final Muzik label, with G. B. Jones appearing as a guest vocalist.

By 2010, G. B. Jones was working with Minus Smile of Kids on TV on a new musical project called Opera Arcana. They appeared as guests on UK artist Nick Hudson's 2016 release Ganymede In A State of War.

Film

G. B. Jones has directed and appeared in a number of underground films. In 1990, she and Bruce LaBruce held J.D.s movie nights in London, Toronto, Montreal, Buffalo, New York and San Francisco, showing their no budget films made on Super 8 mm film. The Troublemakers premiered at this time and proved influential, although rarely screened afterwards till the mid 2000s. In 1991, she starred in the feature film No Skin Off My Ass by Bruce LaBruce, which has been noted by Gus Van Sant to be Kurt Cobain's favorite movie. To date, her own films have been made using a variety of mediums, including Super 8 mm and analog video. Her best known work from the 1990s is perhaps The Yo-Yo Gang, released in 1992, a 30-minute exploitation movie about girl gangs. The film stars a number of well-known musicians, including Fifth Column members Caroline Azar and Beverly Breckenridge.

Jones' film The Lollipop Generation, which had been a work-in-progress for 13 years, had its premiere on 3 April 2008 at the Images Festival in Toronto. The film stars Jena von Brucker, Mark Ewert, Calvin Johnson, Joel Gibb, Jen Smith and many other musicians, performers, and artists.

Artwork and publications

G. B. Jones initially received recognition for her drawings, which had been published in the fanzine J.D.s, founded by Jones and co-published with Bruce LaBruce, the initials 'J.D.s' standing for Juvenile delinquents. The editors wrote a manifesto for the punk publication Maximum Rock 'N' Roll and, at the end of the decade, released a cassette tape entitled J.D.s Top Ten Tape, featuring bands from the U.S.A., Canada, New Zealand, and the UK.

In 1991, these drawings began to be shown in galleries, first in New York City, NY, U.S.A., and then around the world. In 1996 a gallery in New York released a book of her drawings, posters, record covers, and other artwork, entitled G. B. Jones, with commentaries by Kevin Killian, Dodie Bellamy, Dennis Cooper and others. Although widely available in the US and Europe, copies were seized by Canadian border customs and it was officially pronounced banned in Canada .

In 1991, Jones and a rotating roster of editors, including Jena von Brücker, Rex, Johnny Noxzema, Caroline Azar and several others began releasing the often contentious zine Double Bill, frequently referred to as an 'anti-zine' or 'hatezine' (as opposed to 'fan'-zine), a new category in the self-publishing world. Five issues were produced, the last one in 2001. During publication the zine was written about in The Village Voice and the editors collectively contributed to the seminal Riot Grrrl fanzine Girl Germs.

In the early 2000s, Jones began turning her attention to other subject matter in her drawings. Her work now explored darker themes: surreal lollipops; ruined buildings; car crashes; and the religious and pagan imagery of the record cover she produced for the Hidden Cameras' EP The Arms of His 'Ill'. G. B. Jones appears briefly, dressed in black and wielding a knife, at the end of The Hidden Cameras video I Believe in the Good of Life which appeared in 2005. In 2013, she created the poster of Chelsea Manning for The Hidden Cameras album Age.

Jones' significant contribution to artist publications was most recently acknowledged in the book, In Numbers: Serial Publications by Artists Since 1955.

Jones' work has appeared in a wide variety of media including film, fanzines, magazines, books, anthologies, posters, T-shirts, and on record, cassette and CDs, and their covers. As well, her drawings have been shown in art galleries and museums, and her films at film festivals, throughout Europe, Canada and the United States. She is currently represented by New York and West Hollywood-based art gallery Lexander.

Exhibition history

Jones' first gallery was Feature Inc., curated by New York-based gallerist Hudson, who was the first art dealer to showcase her now famous Tom Girls series of drawings from 1991 to 1999. She has also had solo exhibitions at La Centrale, Or Gallery, and Mercer Union, among others.

From 13 December 2010 to April 2011 the first full and comprehensive retrospective of Jones' work was held at Lexander in Los Angeles.

Filmography

• Dark End of the Street, video for The Hidden Cameras, directed by G.B. Jones (2016)
• She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column, directed by Kevin Hegge (2012)
• The Lollipop Generation, directed by G. B. Jones (2008)
• Winning, directed by Ross McLaren (2005)
• I Believe in the Good of Life, video for The Hidden Cameras, directed by Joel Gibb (2005)
• She's Real, directed by Lucy Thane (1997)
• Airplane on the Highway, video for Bob Wiseman, directed by Caroline Azar (1994)
• The Yo-Yo Gang, directed by G. B. Jones (1992)
• No Skin Off My Ass, directed by Bruce LaBruce (1991)
• Like This, video for Fifth Column, directed by Bruce LaBruce and Fifth Column (1990)
• The Troublemakers, directed by G. B. Jones (1990)
• Cross Your Heart, directed by Suzy Richter (1989)
• Bruce and Pepper Wayne Gacy's Home Movies, directed by Bruce LaBruce and Candy Parker (1988)
• Boy, Girl, directed by Bruce LaBruce (1987)
• Fifth Column at the Funnel, directed by John Porter (1982)

Bibliography

• Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies, edited by Andy Paciorek and Katherine Beem, Wyrd Harvest Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-326-37637-6
• Welcome to Jonestown: Southern Ontario Gothic, by Salem Kapsaski, edited by Jeremy Richey, Art Decades, 2015, ISBN 1511568984
• Feminismes Electrique. eddied by Leila Pourtavaf. La Centrale, 2012, ISBN 978-2-89091-321-9
• Cinematic folds: the furling and unfurling of images, edited by Firoza Elavia, Pleasure Dome, 2008, ISBN 978-0-9682115-4-0
• The Book of Boy Trouble 2: Born to Trouble, Robert Kirby and David Kelly, editors, Green Candy Press, 2008 ISBN 978-1-931160-65-0
• Juicy Mother 2: How They Met, edited by Jennifer Camper, Manic D Press, 2007 ISBN 978-1-933149-20-2
• The Salivation Army Black Book by Scott Treleaven, Printed Matter Inc./Art Metropole, 2006, ISBN 0-89439-021-X
• Juicy Mother, edited by Jennifer Camper, Soft Skull Press, 2005, ISBN 1-932360-70-0
• Boy Trouble, Robert Kirby and David Kelly editors, Boy Trouble Books, 2004, ISBN 0-9748855-0-9
• What's Wrong? Explicit Graphic Interpretations Against Censorship, edited by Robin Fisher, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2002, ISBN 1-55152-136-9
• Dangerous Drawings, edited by Andrea Juno, Juno Books, 1997, ISBN 0-9651042-8-1
• G. B. Jones, edited by Steve LaFreniere, Feature Publications, 1996
• Ruh Roh, edited by Marcus Ewert and Mitchell Watkins, published by Feature Inc. and Instituting Contemporary Idea, NYC, 1992
• Discontents, edited by Dennis Cooper, Amethyst Press, 1992, ISBN 0-927200-10-4
• Double Bill, edited by Caroline Azar, Jena von Brücker, G. B. Jones, Johnny Noxzema, Rex, Issues 1–5, 1991 to 2001
• J.D.s, edited by G. B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce, Issues 1–8, 1985 to 1991

Notes and references

Further reading

• Spencer, Amy; DIY: The Rise Of Lo-Fi, Marion Boyars Publishers, London, England, 2005 ISBN 0-7145-3105-7

External links

• Official G. B. Jones Facebook
• G. B. Jones on YouTube
• G. B. Jones at ZineWiki
• Opera Arcana official Facebook
• G. B. Jones at West Hollywood art gallery, Lexander Contemporary Art + Design

Articles

• G. B. Jones: Living Life Like a Car Crash from The Lexander Magazine
• Bunny & the Lakers on WFMU
• Pink Steam art exhibition in San Francisco, July 2004
• The Maze by G. B. Jones at Hex Magazine