Week Four

Patssi Valdez was the artist that resonated with me most during this weeks presentations. My favorite were the images, photographs, and film stills of her and the Asco group. Something about the magical way in which the photographs captured these staged surreal scenes that communicated Asco's radical messages dealing with the socio-economic and political conditions around the East Los Angeles Chicano community during the 1970's and 1980's. After looking Patssi Valdez up I am drawn to and admire the work she did collaboratively with her Asco group. The LACMA graffiti image is also one of the most amazing and powerful, as it was done in response to racial prejudices against Chicanos by a curator at LACMA. Valdez is a truly photogenic woman not in a simply beautiful way but in an empowering and interesting way. When I was looking at her and Asco's work, another image, one that was not presented on but was on her website, was truly awesome and striking. It was one in which they were all sitting around a table, some in masks, all doing surreal strange acts. Patssi herself is eating a banana. politically I am not sure what it is meant to say, but aesthetically as an artist it is a very intriguing piece.