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

zines A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is, as noted on Merriam-Webster’s official website, a magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject ...

. She is best known for producing the queer punk zine '' J.D.s'' and her ''Tom Girls'' drawings.

Career

Music

Jones' musical career began as a young child, singing 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 a group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize ...

, 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'' 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 Canada, Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholar ...

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

Kill Rock Stars Kill Rock Stars is an independent record label founded in February 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 it was orig ...

compilation album '' Fields and Streams''.

Artwork and publications

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

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

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 word, blend of ''fan (person), 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 pleas ...

'' J.D.s'', 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 a ...

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, 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), known by the pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist who made stylized highly masculinized erotic art, and influenced late 20th-century gay culture. He has been called the "mos ...

) 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.

Queercore

Jones coined the term " homocore" with LaBruce to cater to the social mutants of the underground. It later evolved into "

queercore 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 specifically ...

" 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 collec ...

, 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 public art gallery located at Harbourfront Centre in the heart of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Gallery is a registered Canadian charitable organization. Initially established in 1976 as ...

, 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, Berlin. Her first gallery was Feature Inc. in

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

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

Filmography

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'', 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'', 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). Early life and edu ...

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

Joel Gibb Joel W. 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 a ...

, (2005) * '' She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column'', directed by

Kevin Hegge Kevin Hegge is a Canadian documentary filmmaker based in Toronto, Ontario, who specializes in films about social and musical subcultures. He is most noted for his film '' She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column'', which was the winner of the award ...

, (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

, eds., ''Juicy Mother 2: How They Met'', 2007 * Firoza Elavia, ed., ''Cinematic folds: the furling and unfurling of images'', Pleasure Dome, 2008, * Marcus Ewert and Mitchell Watkins, eds., ''Ruh Roh'', published by Feature Inc. and Instituting Contemporary Idea, NYC, 1992 * Robin Fisher, ed., 'What's Wrong? Explicit Graphic Interpretations Against Censorship'',

Arsenal Pulp Press Arsenal Pulp Press is a Canadian independent book publishing company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company publishes a broad range of titles in both fiction and non-fiction, focusing primarily on underrepresented genres such as und ...

, 2002, * Andrea Juno, ed., ''Dangerous Drawings'', Juno Books, 1997, * Selene Kapsaski (edited by Jeremy Richey), ''Welcome to Jonestown: Southern Ontario Gothic'', Art Decades, 2015, * Robert Kirby and David Kelly, eds., ''Boy Trouble'', Boy Trouble Books, 2004, * Robert Kirby and David Kelly, eds., ''The Book of Boy Trouble 2: Born to Trouble'', Green Candy Press, 2008 * Andy Paciorek and Katherine Beem, eds, ''Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies'', Wyrd Harvest Press, 2015, * Leila Pourtavaf, ed., ''Feminismes Electrique''. La Centrale, 2012, * Spencer, Amy; ''DIY: The Rise Of Lo-Fi'', Marion Boyars Publishers, London, England, 2005 *

Scott Treleaven Scott Treleaven is a Canadian artist whose work employs a variety of media including painting, collage, film, video, drawing, photography and installation. Artwork ''Artform Magazine'' invoked references to Jean Genet, William S. Burroughs, Ja ...

, ''The Salivation Army Black Book'', Printed Matter Inc./Art Metropole, 2006, ; G. B. Jones, editor * ''Double Bill'', edited by

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-rel ...

, Jena von Brücker, G. B. Jones, Johnny Noxzema, Rex, Issues 1–5, 1991 to 2001 * '' J.D.s'', edited by

and G. B. Jones, Issues 1-7, 1985 to 1991 * ''Hide'', edited by Caroline Azar, Candy Pauker, G. B. Jones, Issues 1-5, 1981 to 1985

External links

G. B. Jones
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

*
Bunny & the Lakers
at ''

WFMU WFMU (91.1 MHz) is a non-commercial educational station, non-commercial, listener-supported, independent radio, independent community radio station city of license, licensed to East Orange, New Jersey, with studios in Jersey City. It is owned by ...

'' (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 Canadian lesbian artists Canadian LGBTQ 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 Canadian feminist musicians 1965 births Canadian lesbian musicians 20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people Canadian LGBTQ singers Canadian queer musicians