G. B. Jones (born 1965) is a Canadian artist, filmmaker, musician, and publisher of

zines A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very smal ...

born in

Bowmanville Bowmanville is a town of approximately 40,000 people located in the Municipality of Clarington, Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately east of Toronto, and east of Oshawa along Highway 2. Bowmanville was first incorporated as a to ...

, Canada. She is known for producing

J.D.s ''J.D.s'' is a queer punk zine founded and co-published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada by G. B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce, that ran for eight issues from 1985 to 1991. " ''J.D.s'' is seen by many to be the catalyst that pushed the queercore scene i ...

with her acclaimed''Tom Girls'' drawings before going on to create more musically, cinematically, and artistically. Additionally, her diverse projects have amply contributed to the LGBTQ+ space. Queerness is intersected with her variety of mediums and is done so purposefully with the hopes of sparking more societal discussion, connecting with more readers/ and viewers, or just being her authentic self in all she engages in. Jones continues to live and work in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, Canada.

Career

Music

Jones' young musical beginnings started at a young age with her performing Canadian folk songs in the school choir. Though she didn’t have enough money to buy records, her uncle was very involved in the folk music community and exposed her to a musical education that would prove valuable later on. From the early 1980s to the late 1990s, Jones performed with the all woman post-punk band

Fifth Column A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. According to Harris Mylonas and Scott Radnitz, "fifth columns" are “domestic actors who work to un ...

, playing drums, guitar and background vocals, and was one of the co-founders of the group.McDonnell, Evelyn
''Girls + Guitars''
''Out Magazine''. ''Vol. 8, No. 10''. Published by Here Publishing. April 2000. The band's first album, ''

To Sir With Hate ''To Sir With Hate'' is the debut album by Canadian post punk band Fifth Column, released in 1985 on Hide Records. Considered a classic of Canadian music, it was named a shortlisted nominee in the 1976-1985 category for the 2016 Polaris Music ...

'' was released in 1985.Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, '' Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995''.

ECW Press ECW Press is a Canadian book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholarly book ...

. . In 2002, Fifth Column's last release, ''Imbecile'', appeared on the

Kill Rock Stars Kill Rock Stars is an independent record label founded in 1991 by Slim Moon and Tinuviel Sampson, and based in both Olympia, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The label has released a variety of work in different genres, but was originally kn ...

compilation album '' Fields and Streams''.

Artwork and publications

G. B. Jones initially received recognition for her ''Tom Girls'' drawings, which were published in the

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the l ...

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

fanzine A fanzine (blend of '' fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share ...

'', founded by Jones and co-published with

Bruce LaBruce Bruce LaBruce (born January 3, 1964) is a Canadian artist, writer, filmmaker, photographer, and underground director based in Toronto. Life and career LaBruce was born in Tiverton, Ontario. He has claimed both Justin Stewart and Bryan Bruce as ...

. It would go on to include contributors like Anonymous Boy and

Dennis Cooper Dennis Cooper (born January 10, 1953) is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist. He is best known for the ''George Miles Cycle'', a series of five semi-autobiographical novels published between 1989 and 2000 and describe ...

. J.D.s was modeled after a soft- core gay magazine from the 50s and early 60s called

Physique Pictorial ''Physique Pictorial'' is an American magazine, one of the leading beefcake magazines of the mid-20th century. During its run from 1951 to 1990 as a quarterly publication, it exemplified the use of bodybuilding culture and classical art figure pos ...

in an effort to not only elevate queer history, but also to critique it, expand it, and bring it up to date. Before there was J.D.s, Jones found her footing with Photocopy Art and the photocopier through the help of her instructor, Barbara Astman. The empire Jones and LaBruce formed, in addition to the zine produced, included creating compilation cassettes like HIDE with

Caroline Azar Caroline Azar is a director and playwright. She was the lead singer, keyboardist and co-lyricist/composer of the band Fifth Column. Career The all-women punk band Fifth Column began in the mid-1980s in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band self-rele ...

, directing and starring in videos, hosting a film series at a Toronto nightclub, and heading a clique of anarchists called the New Lavender Panthers.

Themes

In an interview with Xtra Toronto, Jones shares, “I was interested in certain issues that I don’t think many people may have picked up on in the work, ideas about authority figures, power, obviously, and the abuse of power, and gender roles as they pertain to both sexes. I think there’s been a tendency to take a very reductivist view of the work as simply erotic and kind of dismiss that there could be any other concerns involved.” According to

Dodie Bellamy Dodie Bellamy (born 1951) is an American novelist, nonfiction author, journalist, educator and editor. Her book, ''Cunt-Ups'' (2001) won the 2002 Firecracker Alternative Book Award. Her work is frequently associated with that of the New Narrativ ...

, G. B. Jones "co-opts the male-on-male objectifying gaze of gay erotica and converts it to a female-on-female gaze" and her''Tom Girls'' series of drawings (based on the work of

Tom of Finland Touko Valio Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist who made stylized highly masculinized homoerotic art, and influenced late 20th-century gay culture. He has been called the "most influential ...

) are "unapologetic, thrillingly anti-assimilationist."Jones gives her marginalized female characters a place to reclaim their power. By changing the narrative, Jones's drawings allow viewers to compare the effect of women in those positions of authority versus the men.

Legacy

J.D.s would go on to inspire future queercore zines like S.C.A.B (Society for the Annihilation of Breeders) and

Fanorama ''Fanorama'' (also known as ''Fanorama Society'' and ''Fanorama Cabal'') is a Rhode Island-based zine and zine-distro produced by journalist/activist REB (Richard E. Bump). According to their website it is the "grand-daddy of the queer zine scene". ...

. Fifth Column would qo on to pave the path for queercore,

riot grrl Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. Riot grrrl is a subcultu ...

scenes, and entire movements such as Queercore Punk and

Vaginal Davis Vaginal Davis (born in Los Angeles, California) is an American performing artist, painter, independent curator, composer, filmmaker and writer. Born intersex and raised in South Central, Los Angeles, Davis gained notoriety in New York during the ...

On Queerness

Jones coined the term “

homocore Queercore (or homocore) is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifical ...

” with LaBruce to cater to the social mutants of the underground. It later evolved into "queercore" to be more inclusive.

Exhibition history

Jones has exhibited her art nationally and internationally since the early 1990s, in spaces such as

Columbus Museum of Art The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (its name until 1978), it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collect ...

, Columbus; Participant Inc., New York;

Mercer Union Mercer Union is a Canadian artist-run centre in Toronto, Ontario, established in 1979 to exhibit contemporary art. History Mercer Union was founded in 1979 by artists Michael Balfe, Peter Blendell, Ric Evans, Peter Hill, Jamie Lyons, David MacW ...

, Toronto;

The Power Plant The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery is a Canadian non-collecting public contemporary art gallery located at the heart of Toronto, Ontario at the Harbourfront Centre. It is a registered Canadian charitable organization supported by its mem ...

, Toronto; Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna;

White Columns White Columns is New York City’s oldest alternative non-profit art space. White Columns is known as a showcase for up-and-coming artists, and is primarily devoted to emerging artists who are not affiliated with galleries. All work submitted i ...

, New York; AKA Artist Run Space, Winnipeg; Muncher Kunstverein, Munich; and

Schwules Museum The Schwules Museum (English: Gay Museum) in Berlin, Germany, is a museum and research centre with collections focusing on LGBTQ+ history and culture. It opened in 1985 and it was the first museum in the world dedicated to gay history. The mu ...

, Berlin. Her first gallery was

Feature Inc. Feature, also known as Feature Gallery and Feature Inc., opened in Chicago on April 1, 1984, with an exhibition of Richard Prince rephotographs. The gallery then moved to New York in 1988. Feature officially became Feature Inc. in January 1994. ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, curated by Hudson, who was the first art dealer to showcase her ''Tom Girls'' series of drawings from 1991 to 1999.

Selected solo exhibitions

* ''G.B. Jones'', Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada (2022) * ''Temple of Friendship'', Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada (2020) * ''what’s next is close at hand'', Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada (2018) * ''Born Yesterday (two-person with Paul P.)'', Participant Inc, New York, USA (2017) * ''Past Present Future'', Lexander, Los Angeles, USA (2011) * ''La-bas'', La Centrale Galerie, Montreal, Canada (2008) * ''Rise Up Thou Earth'', Sunday, New York, USA (2007) * ''The Power and the Glory'', Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada (2005) * ''Crush'', Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada (2003) * ''Good''. Bad. G.B. Jones (cur. Reid Shier), Or Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (1996) * ''Girly Pictures (cur. Shonagh Adelman)'', Mercer Union, Toronto, Canada (1994) * ''Feature'', New York, USA (1991)

Filmography

Jones has been making movies since 1985 and her work has been exhibited throughout North America, South America, Europe, Israel and Australia. Her most recent movie, " The Lollipop Generation", was showcased at the Gala Premiere for The Images Festival of 2008 and from there went on to play around the world. Jones would create her movies on

Super 8 mm film Super 8 mm film is a motion-picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement over the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format. The film is nominally 8 mm wide, the same as older formatted ...

and analogue video, utilizing guerrilla film tactics and embracing a no-budget credo she refers to as "The Aesthetics of Poverty." As a result, G.B. has frequently been regarded as the creator and contributor for important cultural movements which have emerged in the past three decades.

Director

* ''The Troublemakers'', directed by G. B. Jones (1990) * ''The Yo-Yo Gang'', directed by G. B. Jones (1992) * ''The Lollipop Generation'', directed by G. B. Jones (2008) * ''The Dark End of the Street'', directed by G.B. Jones (2017)

Actor

* ''Fifth Column at the Funnel'', directed by John Porter (1982) * '' Boy, Girl'', directed by Bruce LaBruce (1987) * ''

Bruce and Pepper Wayne Gacy's Home Movies Bruce and Pepper Wayne Gacy's Home Movies also known as Home Movies is a short experimental film by Bruce LaBruce and Candy Parker. Made in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1988, it is filmed in colour and black and white on Super 8mm film and is 12 m ...

'', directed by Bruce LaBruce and Candy Parker (1988) * ''Like This'', music video for

, directed by Bruce LaBruce and Fifth Column (1990) * ''

No Skin Off My Ass ''No Skin Off My Ass'' is a 1991 comedy-drama film by Bruce LaBruce. LaBruce's debut feature film provides a template for many of the themes in LaBruce's later movies. Explicit sex scenes between LaBruce's character and von Brucker's are interwov ...

'', directed by

(1991) * ''Donna'', music video for Fifth Column, directed by Friday Myers (1994) * ''She's Real'', directed by

Lucy Thane Lucy Thane (born 1967) is a British documentary filmmaker, event producer and performer, living in Folkestone. Her films include ''It Changed My Life: Bikini Kill in the UK'' (1993) and ''She's Real (Worse than Queer)'' (1997). Life and work Thane ...

(1997) * ''I Believe in the Good Of Life'', music video for The Hidden Cameras, directed by

Joel Gibb Joel Gibb (born 28 January 1977) is a Berlin-based Canadian artist and singer-songwriter who leads the "gay church folk" group The Hidden Cameras. He was born in Kincardine, Ontario. Career His first involvement with the music scene was as ed ...

, (2005) * ''She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column'', directed by Kevin Hegge, (2012) * '' Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution'', directed by

Yony Leyser Yony Leyser (born 1985) is a director and writer based in Berlin. Biography Early life and education Yony Leyser was born in DeKalb, Illinois in 1985 to an Israeli-Iranian mother and a German Jewish father. Leyser studied at the California I ...

, (2017]

References

External links

G. B. Jones
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

*
Bunny & the Lakers
at ''

WFMU WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station, licensed to East Orange, New Jersey. Since 1998 its studios and operating facilities have been headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. It broadcasts locally at 91.1 Mhz FM, i ...

'' (February 15, 2010) {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, G. B. Living people Canadian contemporary artists Canadian experimental filmmakers Canadian women drummers Canadian women guitarists Canadian film actresses Canadian punk rock drummers Canadian punk rock guitarists Canadian women artists Canadian women film directors LGBT artists from Canada LGBT film directors Pop artists Queercore musicians Women experimental filmmakers Actresses from Toronto Artists from Toronto Film directors from Toronto Musicians from Toronto Fifth Column (band) members Riot grrrl musicians Feminist musicians 1965 births Canadian lesbian musicians